Me in this crowd is like me in that crowd: evidence for a crowd self

Research suggests that crowds can be psychologically meaningful and present a pathway to social connection. Based on that research and research on relational selves, we propose that there are “crowd selves” (self-concepts that are activated when in a crowd; Hypothesis 1); that the crowd self is more likely to occur when a crowd is psychologically meaningful (Hypothesis 2); and that the crowd self transfers to similar crowds (Hypothesis 3). In Studies 1, 2a, and 2b we found that the self-concept shifts when participants were primed with crowds (Hypothesis 1) and that this shift was larger when the crowd was psychologically meaningful (Hypothesis 2). Study 3 found that the crowd self transferred to a novel but similar crowd (Hypothesis 3). Thus, across four studies and three different measures of self-change, we found support for the existence of a crowd self. The implications for the flexibility of the self and the importance of crowds are discussed.