392 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The inhibitive power which measures our ability to go our 

 own way undisturbed grows with the variety and number of sug- 

 gestions that reach us. This may be because conflicting sugges- 

 tions block each other off. The power of independent choice 

 seems to develop best when the clash of suggestions reduces to a 

 minimum the ascendency of the outer world over the individual. 

 This is why age, travel, and contact with affairs build up charac- 

 ter. But when numerous identical suggestions beset one, one's 

 power of resistance is gradually undermined. As many taps of 

 a hammer fracture the bowlder, so the onset of multitudinous sug- 

 gestion breaks the strongest will. Men who can readily throw 

 off the thousand suggestions of everyday life will be quite swept 

 away by the reiteration of a single idea from all sides. As a 

 mighty organ compels even benches and windows to vibrate in 

 unison with it, so the crowd dominated by a single mood emits a 

 volume of suggestion that gives an emotional pitch and tone to 

 every individual in it. 



Besides the volume of suggestion possible in a crowd, there is 

 usually a condition of excitement or expectancy. Frequently, too, 

 there is a pressure on the body which prevents voluntary move- 

 ment while conveying promptly to each all those electrifying 

 swayings and tremors that express the emotions of the mass. The 

 mere physical contact in the excited crowd, therefore, provides 

 certain conditions of suggestibility. 



A cross-section of the mob sometimes shows a concentric struc- 

 ture. There is in the center a leader from whom suggestions pro- 

 ceed. These, caught up by those near by and most dominated by 

 his personality, are transmitted to the next circle with an added 

 force. Thus the suggestion passes outward from zone to zone of 

 the crowd, at each stage gathering volume and hence power to 

 master the rest. That, therefore, which started at the center as 

 fascination becomes sheer mental intimidation at the rim. This 

 symmetrical type of mob has led some to look in every case for 

 the leader who controls the mass by his personality or prestige. 

 But the quest for a nucleus, while it makes the study of mobs 

 more mysterious and sensational, certainly does not make it more 

 scientific. Rarely does the primitive impulse proceed from one 

 man. Usually the first orientation of minds is brought about by 

 some object, spectacle, or event. This original phase, the moment 

 it is observed by the members of the crowd, gives rise to three 

 results : (1) By mere contagion the feeling extends to others till 

 there is complete unanimity ; (2) each feels more intensely the mo- 

 ment he perceives that the rest share his feeling ; (3) the per- 

 ceived unison calls forth a sympathy that makes the next agree- 

 ment easier, and so paves the way for the mental unity of the 

 crowd. 



