http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Derby -Police-Criticise-Crowd-Who-Encouraged-Shaun-D ykes-To-Jump-Off-Westfield-Shopping-Centre/Art icle/200810115110890?f=rss Press reports advise that while this young man was being taked to by negotiators, some of the crowd on the ground were calling to him to jump, with phrases like 'Get on with it ...' and 'How far will you bounce ...'.
Leaving aside the knee-jerk reaction of disgust at such behaviour, does anyone have any theories about why the crowd mentality takes over at scenes like this? Why do people make stupid flippant remarks, and then rush to film the poor man's corpse after he took their 'advice' and jumped.
Please don't post if you only want to rant about 'doing the same to them' - I am interested in any genuine insights into why people behave like this when faced with a potential fatality.