Herd behavior occurs among animals and humans. Herd behavior is when follows or stays with the crowd and do the same thing the crowd does. Among animals, they normally crowd together while hunting, and running from a disaster; it is unusual for one to take another path from the crowd. Humans do the same too. Whether it is running from a fire, or choosing a restaurant, people tend to follow the crowd; when there is a fire in a building, people would huddle together and escape the fire, and while choosing a restaurant, one would more likely choose a restaurant with many people instead of one with no people: that is one’s first instinct. Adolf Hitler also took advantage of herd behavior by ordering his officers to cheer for him in his speeches, so that others would follow suit. There are many reasons to why people follow the crowd.
The main reason why herd behavior occurs is that people tend to think that if everyone is doing one thing, that must be correct, so they follow. Herd behavior occurs most affectively on uncertain people who follow the crowd because they think the crowd knows more than the individual. NCBI states that, “Keynes conceived herding as a response to uncertainty and individuals’ perceptions of their own ignorance: people may follow the crowd because they think that the rest of the crowd is better informed.” Whenever people are uncertain when choosing something or deciding what they should do, they always look at what the rest of the crowd are doing for reference. People also follow the crowd because they hope that they will make the right decision by following everyone else’s decision. For example, when Adolf Hitler’s officers cheered for him, everyone else also cheered for him, because many inexperienced people from the audience chose to follow more seemingly informed people. Herd behavior occurs when one follow the crowd because one thinks that the crowd is more experienced and informed always makes the correct decision.
Herd behavior also occurs because of fear that one will be in danger when traveling on an individual pathway. Fear is one of the most important factors and causes herd behavior: people are afraid to make a choices themselves, so they rely on other people instead. This is one of the main reason why animals follow the animal crowds too. Animal crowds are caused from natural disasters or dangers such as a band of predators hunting for that species of animal. Herd behavior here occurs because of the animal’s fear: they are scared, so they huddle together to form a giant pack of animals running from the dangers. They think that if they blend into a crowd, the danger might not notice them and that they would have a low chance to get devoured themselves. That type of behavior also shows on people: people are scared that if they choose a decision themselves, it might be incorrect and bring bad luck to them. But why do they choose what the crowd chooses? People follow the crowd in this case is because, if they choose the wrong choice, it would mean that the crowd chose the wrong choice too, so that they wouldn’t be the only one left out. People follow the crowd because they are scared of choosing the wrong decision, so they rely on the crowd instead.
People follow crowds and act like them so that they wouldn’t be the only awkward one left out, the only one who doesn’t act normal. In other words, people can’t stand social pressure. Social pressure is when the society presses hard upon an individual, where an individual feels stress because of their strong crave for good reputation. Herd behaviors occur because people want to blend in with everyone else and not be the unusual one. In large groups or herds of animals, individual animals normally wouldn’t go off on its own individual pathway and get out of the herd. “It is very unusual for a member of the herd to stray from the movement of the unit.” It would feel very awkward to go away from the crowd, and would normally draw attention to that individual. In danger situations for animals, it would be also dangerous, for the predators would especially aim for the individual one. In Adolf Hitler’s idea to make people all cheer for him worked because of people’s desire and want for good reputation, instead of being the only one person who didn’t cheer. A person’s want for good reputation is one of the other reasons the audience followed the officers’ actions and cheered for Hitler. For example, in big performances, people would follow the rest of the crowd of performers so that they can blend in with them and not draw too much unwanted and bad attention to themselves. Even as an audience, if one didn’t clap and everyone else clapped, one might receive some bad looks from other people. The urge to follow everyone else’s actions is so that one wouldn’t draw too much attention and be the awkward one out.
Herd behavior, or following the crowd, is when an individual follow what the rest of the people are doing, normally by emotion, rather than reason. But why would individuals choose to follow the crowd by emotion instead of thinking about it for a longer time? Individuals, especially inexperienced ones, would choose to follow the crowd’s decision, as they think that the crowd in better informed and would choose the right choice. Herd behavior also occurs by fear: people are scared that if they make a wrong choice, they would have a bad future. But they rely on people because if they are wrong, they would be incorrect together. People also follow the crowd so as not to get too much unwanted attention drawn too them, and not to be the odd one out. This type of situation is called social pressure, in which individuals feel stress from the society and so want to be normal like everyone else. Therefore, people ‘follow the crowd’.
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