In May 2000, I found myself in the midst of the MayDay 2K protests in London, a flashpoint for anti-globalisation sentiment. What started as a peaceful gathering of guerrilla gardeners planting herbs and daisies near Big Ben soon turned into a confrontation with police. The crowd was massive, stretching from Whitehall to Trafalgar Square, where protesters draped themselves over the lions of Nelson's Column.
The Turning Point
At around 2pm, a police squad in riot gear rushed across Whitehall, cutting the protest into two groups and surrounding them. Then came the horses. I vividly remember a line of police horses charging at full speed, their hooves thundering on the pavement, and the screams of protesters scattering. My amygdala took over, and I ran without thinking. Even now, the panic returns when I recall the event.
As the crowd became trapped, anger spread like a contagion. A McDonald's, symbol of global capitalism, was attacked. Seed planters became spray painters, vegans turned vandals, and Leninists became looters. I felt anger at the police, at the loss of freedom and safety. I shouted at a policeman and was struck with a truncheon.
The Psychology of Crowds
This experience illustrates how groups exhibit uncharacteristic behaviours. Gustave Le Bon, observing the Paris Commune of 1871, described a 'group mind' that overrides individual reason. Félicie Gimet, a friendly Communarde, turned to murdering a priest she had joked with earlier, driven by the crowd's anger. Le Bon likened emotional contagion to the spread of microbes.
Harvard psychologist Amit Goldenberg notes that people become more emotional in groups. Negative emotions like anger last longer and intensify, as there is no motivation to regulate them—it feels good to experience emotions together. Anger is highly contagious, more so than sadness, and moral anger even more so.
Online Anger and Angertainment
This phenomenon extends online, where anonymity dissolves restraint and allows primitive responses. We are egged on by the crowd and feel good when we do bad to our enemies. This 'angertainment' hijacks positive evolutionary traits to drive us apart rather than bond us together.
While collective emotions can enable cohesion and coordinated action, as seen in Chile's 2019 protests where anger was a positive tool for justice, angertainment provokes division. Understanding this psychology is crucial in navigating modern protests and online discourse.
This is an edited extract from Angertainment by Ed Coper, out now through Simon & Schuster.
