Page 142 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

Furthermore, the Mass Trance can produce dehumanizing actions against the "outgroup"

that are oppressive as seen when Trump’s administration seizes away children from families

attempting to immigrate across the border or cruelly cuts programs that offer some relief to the

impoverished while Oligarchs enjoy preferential VIP treatment from their ilk like large tax-cuts

that inflate the national deficit further while splurging on fat government contracts.

Mass Trance on a micro-level can be compared to Groupthink as a construct of social

psychology which also has an extensive reach and influences literature in the fields

of communication studies, political science, management, and organizational theory, (Turner &

Pratnakis, 1998) as well as important aspects of deviant religious cult behavior. (Wexler, 1995)

Groupthink while related to my more macro theory of Mass Trance is sometimes stated to

occur (more obvious) within natural settings of groups within the community, for example to

explain the lifelong adherent mindsets of those with differing political views (such as

"conservatism" and "liberalism" in the U.S. political context (Shermann, 2011).

However, this conformity of viewpoints within a group does not mainly involve deliberate

group decision-making and might be better explained by the collective confirmation bias of the

individual members of the group, another area which I have explored in the Albany case-study.

Herd behavior describes how individuals in a group can act collectively without centralized

direction. The term can refer to the behavior of animals in herds, packs, bird flocks, fish schools

and so on, as well as the behavior of humans in demonstrations, riots and general strikes, (Braha

2012) sporting events, religious gatherings, Trump rallies, episodes of mob violence and everyday

decision-making, judgement and opinion-forming. Raafat, Chater and Frith (2009) proposed an

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