Penn State Riot Research Paper

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A riot is a crowd behavior in which members of one group indiscriminately attack the persons or property of the members of another group. The riot I chose was the Penn State riot that occurred on November 11th, 2011. It occurred on the campus of Penn State University. Many were involved in this riot including the head football coach at the university Joe Paterno, university president Graham Spanier, assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, the universities board of trustees, students, and media. Hundreds of students gathered at the student union center to watch the board of trustees' news conference on a big screen. When the announcement came that Paterno would not coach again at Penn State, students gasped and hushed. Women…show more content…
Seven social psychological characteristics of crowds that can lead to a riot is the “spiral of excitement”. The first characteristic is anonymity; meaning people are hidden in a crowd so they feel more freedom. There was definitely a sense of anonymity in this riot; students’ actions would not have been the same in a smaller group. The large group allows them to get away with more because its more people for authorities to control. The second is shared tension or unrest; the crowd at Penn State was forming because they all were opposed to the firing of Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier. The third characteristic is attention focused on a single stimulus or people gathering to watch or hear one thing. The crowd at Penn State was waiting to hear the universities board of trustees’ decision on what to do with situation. The fourth is inhibition of other stimuli meaning your attention is focused on one thing so you ignore all others. The students were undoubtedly focused on the news conference. The fifth characteristic is excitement. As the crowd was waiting they were getting more anxious to hear the news conference and the numbers of the crowd grew causing there to be more excitement and tension. The sixth is emotional contagion. The emotion of the rioters was very clear; they all were set on the same outcome of the issue. The seventh and final social psychological characteristic is interstimulation. The rioters there from the start

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