Le Bon (Gustave)

Gustave Le Bon, the French polymath and author of “The Crowd” who theorized about crowd psychology, persuasion (affirmation, repetition, contagion), and mass behavior. He contrasted word-image relationships in language and was influential in early social psychology.

Claims that use this term

• Egyptian intellectuals chose Le Bon over Durkheim despite hearing both
• Le Bon saw word-image dissociation as a perversion of language, not inherent to it
• Le Bon identified affirmation, repetition, and contagion as crowd persuasion devices