At a city festival, individual people are hard to pick out in a large crowd. A few people start throwing empty cups onto the stage, and soon most of the crowd is doing the same. A few minutes later, most of the crowd turns against the cup-throwing and boos anyone who throws another cup. The crowd stays just as large.
Use deindividuation and majority influence to account for the spread of the cup-throwing. Then explain how the crowd turning against it could affect whether it continues.
76 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Psychology 4.2 Theories/Explanations, covering 4.2.1 Situational factors on conformity and crowds, 4.2.2 Situational factors on culture and obedience; criticisms, 4.2.3 Situational Factors research study: Bickman (1974), 4.2.4 Dispositional factors on conformity, crowds, morality, obedience, 4.2.5 Brain in dispositional factors; criticisms, and 4.2.6 Dispositional Factors research study: NatCen (2011). Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.