390 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE MOB MIND. 



BY PROF. EDWARD A. ROSS. 



IN viewing social life among animals one is struck by the con- 

 tagion of feeling in a herd or flock. Whatever the feeling 

 called up, whether terror, hostility to a stranger, rage at heredi- 

 tary enemies, sympathy for a stricken fellow, or the impulse to 

 migrate, all the members of the group feel it, and feel it almost at 

 once. If anything unusual occurs, a wave of excitement passes 

 over the herd, followed by instant and unanimous response. Of 

 inquiry or doubt or reflection there is no sign. 



This prompt obedience to suggestions from one's fellows is ac- 

 counted for the moment we recall the harsh conditions of animal 

 existence. It is the gregarious animals that are least formidable 

 by nature and hence most dependent on mutual aid. Instant 

 fight or flight is the condition of their existence, and failure to co- 

 operate promptly means death. By oft-repeated sifting out of 

 the stupid, the heedless, or the willful, Nature builds up a mar- 

 velous suggestibility and a most alert response to sign. Not oth- 

 erwise can we explain why a feeling should run like wildfire 

 through a band of elephants or terror should strike through a 

 herd of deer as a shock passes through a solid body. 



The human analogue to the agitated herd is the mob. Mob 

 comes from " mobile," and refers to mental state. A crowd, even 

 an excited crowd, is not a mob ; nor is an excited crowd bent on 

 violence a mob. Great mental instability marks the true mob, and 

 this characterizes only the crowd that is under the influence of 

 suggestion. A lynching party may be excited, disorderly, and law- 

 less, yet not be a true mob. The crowd that lynched thirteen Ital- 

 ians in New Orleans a few years ago, far from showing the waver- 

 ing indecision of the genuine mob, seemed to know exactly what 

 it wanted and just how to go about it. In this respect it stood in 

 high contrast to the Cincinnati mob of 1886. What distinguished 

 the New Orleans crowd was the absence of epidemic. Its perfect 

 unanimity came not from an overmastering suggestion, but from 

 the coming together of all who had been affected with the same 

 grim rage at the news of Chief Hennessey's assassination. 



Again, we must refuse the name " mob " to the disorderly 

 masses that in times of tumult issue from the criminal quarters 

 of great cities. In such cases there is an unchaining in each man 

 of the evil and secret lusts of his heart on observing that oppor- 

 tunity is favorable and that others are like-minded. Safe from 

 punishment or shame, the ragamuffin or hoodlum burns, loots, and 

 riots in obedience not to a common impulse but to his natural 

 inclination. It is this peculiar effect of numbers in bringing on 



