What is Herd Mentality – How does it Affect Our Behavior

Crowd, herd, or mob mentality is a psychological phenomenon that impacts human behavior. When individuals, instead of believing in their own beliefs and attitudes, start adopting the group’s beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes at the cost of their self-identity, they follow a mob mentality. This affects their lives, including financial, political, and personal decisions.

So, what is herd mentality, and how does it control your life and behavior?

What is Herd Mentality?

Herd mentality is a decision-making behavior influenced by the group. Only 5% of individuals can influence 95% of the group. People who follow someone without even realizing it fall into the trap of crowd mentality and make decisions based on what the five percent crowd is saying. This applies in various contexts, such as business, finance, fashion, religion, technology, etc. Some real-life examples will explain precisely what a mob, crowd, or herd mentality is.

The Psychology Behind Herd Mentality

• Uncertainty—Independent choices are not easy to make. They bring forth a lot of choices, and when these choices don’t match what the majority thinks, knowing whether you are on the right track becomes difficult. The herd mentality reassures individuals that they are on the right track and that their decision is tried and tested.
• Judgment – Everyone loves to get attention, but it comes with a cost i.e., judgment. Mob mentality to gain approval from the group and avoid judgment makes you change your values, beliefs, and attitude toward things.
• Rejection – Crowd mentality brings a sense of social acceptance that is hard to lose. If you decide to decide on your own and be independent, you risk losing the herd and facing rejection. Also, gaining attention will become difficult once you move out.

Examples of Herd Mentality

Fashion trends—Have you seen people attracted to clothing styles and brands promoted by famous people? This rapid adoption of fashion trends without considering their impact on the environment and economics exemplifies how herd mentality works with fashion trends. When people follow such a mentality, they burden themselves with expectations and financial investment.

“When it comes to forming opinions on works of art, people look to others. Most people end up liking paintings, songs and movies just because the majority have a favorable opinion about them. Ultimately it’s all about the brand value of the artist.”

― Abhaidev, The Influencer: Speed Must Have a Limit

Social media—Getting viral, falling viral content, being famous, or engaging with popular people exposes people to content they think is acceptable to their beliefs and preferences. This limits their exposure to different perspectives and reinforces existing biases.

“People are sheep. TV is the shepherd.”

― Jess C. Scott, Literary Heroin (Gluttony): A Twilight Parody

Panic buying—The most common example was observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. People hoarded things like toilet paper, sanitizer, masks, and eatables, thinking they wouldn’t have to struggle if there were a shortage. This created stress and challenges for them and others.

Restaurant choices—People often prefer going to a crowded restaurant rather than an empty one. They think it is more popular than the other one but forget that these people could be seat fillers, creating an illusion. We fall for the gimmick, and instead of going to a restaurant that serves good food, we go to one with more people.

Signs of Herd Mentality

Conformity: People change their beliefs and behavior to get accepted or live with the majority. Even if they do not like it, they try to adapt so that they can be accepted by the majority of the people

Fear of missing out (FOMO): When people feel they might be left alone and nobody will pay attention, they get anxious. This anxiety makes them follow trends that are trending or followed by others, leading to impulsive decision-making and a constant need to stay updated with the latest trends and events. This helps them overcome the fear of missing out and stay updated with the people around them.

Group thinking – It occurs when people interact with group members instead of making a decision on their own or reasoning. They tend to adopt the thought processes and beliefs of others, causing conflicts and marginalization.

Thought suppression: Confirming with a group of people instead of having different opinions and adopting the same beliefs as the group leads to a lack of diversity in thoughts and decision-making. Also, this separation of expression makes people silent and non-vocal. They cannot explain or express their problems and keep an alternative perspective that could help resolve other issues.

Avoid conflict and risk: Individuals who hate getting into arguments or avoid taking risks conform to the status quo as it is easy to follow.

Lack of self-awareness: Not everyone knows about themselves, their likes, dislikes, and interests. Due to this, they are okay with accepting the predetermined roles and stop working on understanding themselves and building self-esteem.

Causes of Herd Mentality

Social influence: Humans are social animals and often seek confirmation from society or a group. Also, guidance and validation are always welcomed. Due to this, individuals become dependent on conformity and follow the mob or crowd mentality.

Likes taking shortcuts – The brain likes to take shortcuts because they are more accessible and less exerting. This is why following the views and behaviors of others seems easy, and individuals stop doing any kind of critical thinking. Confirmation Bias is an example of cognitive bias that leads to a herd mentality. Where you selectively seek out information that you think will be supported by the beliefs of others.

Fear of being left alone—The fear of being alone is one of the greatest fears. However, when in a group, one does not have to struggle with it. You will always be surrounded by people, and for that, individuals are okay following norms and structures made by others.

Trust – When people see someone following a particular trend and becoming popular because they believe it is the correct way to move ahead, they start following it. This creates a Domino effect that leads to the rapid spread of beliefs and behaviors, which is initially incorrect information but leads to a herd mentality.

Is Herd Mentality Good?

In some situations, this mentality can positively impact an individual. When people have limited information about a subject, group knowledge helps them understand it better, and achieving the desired outcome becomes easy. Collective knowledge is always better than individual knowledge, as understanding the positives and negatives becomes easy, and you have more options.

The most common example of crowd-based thinking is Wikipedia, where people collaborate to share their information and keep updating it so that everybody benefits from it

Also, in a group, people follow the same rules, making them more connected and able to achieve the goal in a shorter time. The decision-making is quick, and the fear of judgment is reduced.

In times of crisis or high-pressure situations, a herd mentality suppresses misinformation an individual can pass on, increasing the potential for making better decisions.

Ways to Avoid Mob Mentality

If you think that group mentality is hampering your decision-making capability or is preventing you from growing, follow these strategies:

Develop self-awareness: As you become self-aware, you understand your principles, beliefs, and preferences and can decide based on them. You should reflect on your behavior and be aware of how external pressure influences you. Self-reflection helps you establish a strong connection with yourself and build a sense of Identity that will make you stand apart from the crowd.

Think critically: When you question the validity of a popular opinion or trend, you can understand the pros and cons of a decision before making one. This rational thinking helps you resist the attraction of a crowd mentality and makes you make more informed and better choices.

Diverse perspectives: Different points of view help engage with people from different backgrounds and experiences. This gives a broader understanding of the issue and helps avoid group thinking as you actively seek alternative views. Challenge the assumptions that have been built due to this mentality.

Accept change: Life is a roller coaster ride. You cannot expect everything to happen in a particular manner. you need to start getting comfortable with uncertainty. In some situations when the outcome is not what you expect, embrace it. This will help you to resist the pressure to fit in and make decisions based on your own intuition

Developed self-confidence: Be strong, build self-esteem, and trust your judgment. This will make you feel empowered, and you can make independent decisions that will help you resist the pull of crowd mentality.

Final words:

When you rise above herd mentality, you allow yourself to explore alternatives and new ways. However, when you resist change you stop yourself from growing. Make independent choices not only to improve yourself but also to improve the surroundings. When critical thinking is developed, valuing yourself becomes easy.

Also, a diverse community is created that helps everyone express themselves and put forth what they think. Everybody’s independent thought process is accepted and analyzing pros and cons becomes easy. To grow, try to look for a change and instead of blindly following a group see whether it is helping or not.