Final answer:
The process of deindividuation leads to a loss of personal responsibility and can result in mob behavior, where individual accountability is reduced due to a sense of anonymity in a group setting. The correct answer is option d.
Step-by-step explanation:
In a crowd, people can feel anonymous and lose their sense of personal responsibility. When this happens, the process of deindividuation can lead to mob behavior. Deindividuation is a psychological state where individuals in a group feel a sense of anonymity, leading to a reduced sense of personal accountability and a diminished self-awareness. This phenomenon contributes to behaviors in a group setting that individuals might not typically engage in on their own.
Deindividuation often occurs in situations such as riots or other forms of mob behavior, where the collective identity of the group overshadows personal identities. This process is addressed in theories of collective behavior, such as the emergent norm theory, which recognizes how people in crowds can develop their own norms and behave in a collective manner.
The concept also relates to other social psychological phenomena like the bystander effect, groupthink, and group polarization, where individual actions are influenced by group dynamics and social norms.