Quote Originally Posted by Crystal Tears View Post
Can’t the mob-mentality be used also for good? When say one or two assailants are threatening a group of people, the victims can form a group or mob and defend themselves adequately. Rally the forces, so to speak?
In theory, yes. In practice, no. This has been thoroughly tested in both experimental and real-world settings... I'll explain.

Generally, when a number of people could help, each person is significantly less likely to do so. Each person thinks, "Well, someone will help," and no one does. "Someone will grab that mugger." "Someone will call 911." Etc., etc. The infamous Milgram studies ultimately progressed to the group stage, where a number of people all had the opportunity to save the "learner" who was supposedly being electrocuted. Groups were even less likely to help than individuals. This is why, when you need help in an emergency, it helps to give specific orders to specific people -- it's an implicit statement that the selected individual is the only one who can perform that task (and it's an order, which further plays into Milgram's authority experiments).

Weak humans... always looking for someone else to do the hard work. *shakes head*