Psychology: Middle class looters during the UK riots
With millions of dollars in property damage and extensive injuries to some protestors, the 2011 UK riots captured the attention of the world earlier this week. As with every violent demonstration, break-ins and looting was a common sight. What was unexpected were the kinds of people who doing the looting, they ranged from a millionaire's daughter to a school teaching assistant, hardly the types one would assume to be hard up. Some of these culprits have also openly expressed regret toward committing these crimes. It drives one to wonder what was the underlying psyche that lead these people to loot.
A behavioral scientist from the University of Chicago, Ayelet Fisbach, believes it's simply about going with the flow. "It's a classic demonstration of the power of the situation. People in a group follow the group's norms."
Further explained, it seems that when normal people find themselves in abnormal situations or groups, they give up their personal identity and values. This is process is deemed deindividualization. According to Fisbach, without personal identity and values, people lose track of social responsibility, thinking little when engaging in anti-social behavior.
Clarke McCauley of Bryn Mawr College believes that the urge to keep up with your peers might also be a motivating factor. "If you watch others looting and getting richer, you are seeing them getting ahead of you....It's the fear of falling behind."