Crowd Psychology

The audiobook The Psychology of Crowds, although it is more than a century old, still has something to offer today's man

The Psychology of Crowds is probably the best known book today by the late 19th century French sociologist Gustave Le Bon. Le Bon had already described in this book at the end of the 19th century the changes in the behaviour of individuals who become part of a crowd. Individuals in a crowd are not guided by their own conscience, but do what others do (in newer terms - they are conformist) and are thus much more easily influenced by a leader. The individual who is part of the crowd is, according to him, several stages of civilizational development below.

In the past, this book was very popular (the cover claims that even Adolf Hitler liked to read it). Today, although it is seen as outdated, many modern social-psychological theories seem to merely elaborate on the insights already outlined in this book. The book was first published in 1895 and translated into Czech in 1897.