Collective Behavior and Public Opinion: Rapid Shifts in Opinion and Communication

Jaap van Ginneken9780805843866, 0-8058-4386-8

This is a highly innovative and stimulating work with the outline of an entirely new approach to massive and rapid shifts in opinion and communication. It discusses and explains such mysterious phenomena as sudden crazes and crashes, fads and fashion, hypes and manias, moral outrage and protests, gossip and rumors, and scares and panics. Rich in alternative insights, the book is divided into four parts. Part I discusses the points of departure: the most relevant processes of opinion formation and communication. Part II is about phenomena on three different levels, that have traditionally been studied within the twin fields of mass psychology and collective behavior sociology. Part III focuses on the three prime forms of ”emotional coloring” of opinion currents and public moods. Part IV discusses a combination of some of the aforementioned phenomena: successive crazes and crashes in financial markets, and looks at why technological and economic, and social and opinion forecasts often fail so miserably. The audience for this book includes students of social and mass psychology, social movements and collective behavior sociology, and opinion and communication in general. Professionals in public relations, marketing, health, finance, and politics, as well as the educated lay audience, will also find this book of interest.

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Table of contents :
@Team LiB……Page 0
Contents……Page 6
Preface……Page 10
Introduction:
A New Vision……Page 12
PART
I
MIND QUAKES……Page 18
CHAPTER
1
Public Opinion as a Complex
Adaptive System (CAS)……Page 20
CHAPTER
2
The Continuous Mutation
of Informal Messages……Page 42
CHAPTER
3
Circular Reaction in Media Hypes……Page 64
PART
II
EMERGING COLLECTIVE
BEHAVIOR……Page 90
CHAPTER
4
The Formation of Synergy
in Crowds……Page 92
CHAPTER
5
The Emergence of Patterns
in Opinion Currents……Page 115
CHAPTER
6
The Self-Organization
of Social Movements……Page 142
PART
III
SHIFTING PUBLIC MOODS……Page 166
CHAPTER
7
The Evolving Context
of Fashion and Fads……Page 170
CHAPTER
8
Critical Thresholds
in Fear and Panic……Page 188
CHAPTER
9
Possible Attractors
in Outrage and Protest……Page 210
PART
IV
CONCLUSIONS……Page 234
CHAPTER
10
Phase Transitions
in Crazes and Crashes……Page 236
CHAPTER
11
Prediction, Planning,
and Fundamental Uncertainty……Page 259
CHAPTER
12
Epilogue:
Issues Management?……Page 284
References……Page 292
Author Index……Page 306
Subject Index……Page 312
About the Author……Page 318