A single vivid individual can seize and exaggerate a mass’s existing mood

Evidence

In fact, it is not difficult to understand that such a shift occurs, and for relatively slight reasons. Suppose a stimulus X corresponding to the mood a is exerted upon a mass of people who are present in the same place. In this mass there is a number of individuals, perhaps one only, whose temperament and natural passion tend toward a. This individual is vividly stimulated by X, which reinforces his own leanings. Understandably enough, this person takes leadership in the mass, which is in some measure already disposed toward a, and which follows the mood of the leader whose temperament exaggerates the stimulus. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 4161

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

Related

• Mass movements amplify the mood of their most extreme member (similarity 0.93)
• Physical proximity amplifies mass nervous excitation toward its most passionate member (similarity 0.81)