The crowd a study of the popular mindGustave Le Bon
The crowd a study of the popular mind
by Gustave Le Bon · first published 1960
13mentions
6recommended by
11HN commenters
2014–2025first – last mentioned
55% recommend45% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short, influential account of how individuals behave differently inside crowds. It covers mob dynamics, social media behavior, and group psychology.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…the left's past outrageous lies. If you ask them about the "Russian conspiracy" they'll ignore you and shout about the rightist "insurrection", their latest meme. The left is, essentially, a mob: "The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind Paperback – December 24, 2016 by Gustave Le Bon" https://www.amazon.com/Crowd-Study-Popular-Mind/dp/163600016...
on “QAnon Is Destroying the GOP from Within” ↗Gustave Le Bon would certainly agree to this observation since it is the essence of his 1896 book "The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind". Staying with physics analogies, this book is like a photon. It is illuminating. Proper absorption leads to a higher state and the world will look a bit darker afterwards.
on “The Future of Europe: An Interview with George Soros” ↗To me the easiest way to understand social media is to read Freud's Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. It is a brilliant book as it is really just Freud commentating on The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind by Gustave Le Bon. The most basic idea is once you join a psychological group you stop being fully rational and mostly act on emotions driven by the group. Everything just makes sense after digesting…
on “Don't let social media think for you” ↗…standing up. Gustav Le Bon's book "The Crowd" explains group behaviors (and misbehaviors). The context may be, say, the French Revolution, but the behaviors are the same as exist in social media today. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind : Gustave Le Bon https://archive.org/details/crowdastudypopu00bongoog
on “Le Bon's *the Crowd* and Social Media (Mis-)Behavior” ↗…worn down by perspective that normally comes as a combination of education with age. Most of the points and rhetoric all come back to one book that helped Hitler take power. That book was called The Crowd, A Study of the Popular Mind by Gustave Le Bon written 1895. Other aspects come from more recent research into Torture, and Influence (i.e. Robert Lifton, Joost Meerloo, Robert Cialdini, and the Cult Deprogrammers, etc). The many…
on “To Stop the Coup, We Must Be Clear About the Truth: Two Plus Two Equals Four” ↗…people are more likely to turn discussion into a "clan war" and mob each other instead. And that was long before Twitter or even Google is a thing. Here is a book that many people may already read, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind: https://www.amazon.com/Crowd-Study-Popular-Mind/dp/143410055...
on “The Deliberate Awfulness of Social Media” ↗Can only agree. I recommend you to read The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind by Gustave Lebon
on “How to stop writing like you’re in college” ↗I incorrectly confused this with another book: The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind By Gustave Le Bon in 1896 [PDF] https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/lebon/Cro...
on “Afternotes III: The Lonely Crowd Within” ↗…(and worse). The context may be, say, the French Revolution, but the behavior is the same. Thanks to improved communications people can exhibit some of these behaviors w/o taking a single step. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind : Gustave Le Bon https://archive.org/details/crowdastudypopu00bongoog
on “The problem with social media is not content but its distortion of reality” ↗The Crowd: A Study Of The Popular Mind by Gustave Le Bon https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/125518/1414_LeBon.pdf
on “Physics of Crowds – Why dangerous crowds behave the way they do” ↗1- The Emperor's Handbook by Marcus Aurelius. Jan, 10th 2015 2- The crowd, a study of the popular mind by Gustave Le Bon. Jan, 10th 2015 3- Remote by Jason Fried. Jan, 11th 2015 4- The shape of the world to come by Laurent Cohen-Tanugi, Jan, 20th, 2015 5- Post office by Charles Bukowski. Jan, 23rd 2015 6-…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗…most especially "The Toxoplasma of Rage".[5] There's much prior art going back to Charles Mackay & John Templeton's Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, and Gustave le Bon's The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (both available via the Internet Archive's truly amazing books collection). ________________________________ Notes: 1. https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/drLZV8sm... 2. See for general…
on “Here's how I handle online abuse” ↗TLDR : Fake news of children kidnappers roaming in India circualting on WhatsApp led to 2 young men passing by getting lynched. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind [1] comes to mind. It only takes one person to spark the masses. 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crowd:_A_Study_of_the_Popu...
on “The digital epidemic killing Indians – BBC – Video” ↗