Drag effect
Crosstalk is the process that a human being involuntarily without a conscious self-decision , of events or other people to act can seduce that he does not want or independent non responsible for themselves. It is one in the traffic education and traffic law customary technical term, but also generally in the mass psychology often found to describe social psychological processes in groups use.
The phenomenon
People who find it difficult to make their own decisions or who submit their own decisions to group behavior are primarily affected by the pull-in effect. Often the behavior results from convenience. But it can also be caused by a lack of self-esteem. In the so-called “ herd instinct ”, a phenomenon in mass psychology , the behavior is particularly evident. It is characterized by an unreflected, spontaneous walking along with the individual in the wake of a large number of people. The phenomenon of the pulling-in effect can also often be observed in " group dynamic processes " in panic situations , in criminalistics and in finance ( herd behavior ).
As early as 1895, the French sociologist Gustave Le Bon showed in his main work Psychology of the Masses how people, protected in the anonymity of the crowd, give up their personal responsibility and let themselves be carried away willingly by the feelings and actions of the group. Le Bon says in his "contagion theory" (English. Contagion theory ) of a kind of hypnotic effect of the surrounding social group to which the individual is exposed and tends to lead to irrational behavior.
Children's world
Drag effect from play equipment
Untrained children allow themselves to be guided by the movement of the ball when playing soccer. You are not yet familiar with a tactical game and you have not yet assumed a pass position. Rather, each child tries to conquer the ball for themselves, and so the rolling ball pulls a train of the children behind it.
A similar situation arises when a game device, such as a ball, leaves the playing field and moves to a foreign site, e.g. B. on the neighboring property, on a street or on railroad tracks. The pulling effect causes the child to follow him spontaneously in order to catch the play equipment again. The involuntary action is only delayed if, for example, the neighbor who is known to be threatening is in sight. The traffic education uses the child's psyche accessible braking effects of the dangerous spontaneous behavior on the road by painful for the playful child, but combines unacceptable consequences in the form of game penalties for violations of rules of the game. The game is considered a child-friendly method of learning to adhere to rules and to learn a corresponding self-discipline in order to avoid the uncontrolled dragging effect.
Pulling effect in the group
When a group of children cross the street, it can often be observed that one or two children decide whether to stop or walk regardless of the traffic light signal and the others follow them blindly. If the children take hold of each other's hands, they can sometimes even be seen optically. In adventure ventures, the leaders usually determine the decisions and actions of the clique . This also applies to smoking and other drug use. Children and young people who are not yet firmly established in their own decisions often tend to swim with the flow of the crowd, also because they belong and do not want to see themselves as eccentric or cowardly excluded. In addition, comfort and group solidarity promote the tendency to indulge in the pull of group behavior.
If regulations are disregarded, such as school rules, the helpless excuse “The others did it too” testifies to the dependence on the group trend. This explains, for example, the occurrence of a forbidden snowball fight in the schoolyard or the joint nightly excursion from the boarding school , which result more easily from the pulling effect of group behavior than from a decision by the individual. The individual becomes a "follower" due to a lack of self-determination. He does not dare to oppose the will of the majority and, under the protection of the group (“everyone does that”), allows himself to be carried away to illegal acts. Pedagogy tries to counteract this through a targeted education for individual responsibility. To do this, it uses the game and the rules that constitute it and are therefore generally recognized.
Traffic law
From a legal point of view, the pulling effect is understood as a " momentary failure " and is repeatedly discussed in traffic law and by the courts in connection with the uncontrolled approach to a red light and a corresponding criminal prosecution:
A red light violation according to § 37 StVO is usually punished with a (regular) driving ban. However, if a red light violation is based on a so-called "pulling effect", the imposing of the normal driving ban, which has been forfeited, can be ruled out. This also applies if damage has occurred due to the red light violation by the person concerned. The legal system then speaks of a so-called “momentary failure”, which occurs when a traffic violation is not based on a gross violation of the duties of a motor vehicle driver, but only on a momentary inattentiveness that can undermine any careful road user.
Case 1: The person concerned stopped her vehicle properly in front of the traffic light system showing red light for her and finally drove as a result of a perception error, namely the confusion of the traffic light that was valid for her, and - as can be seen from the testimony of the witness set out in the grounds of the judgment - due to a Inattentiveness based on the so-called drag effect to the left into the intersection without noticing the tram approaching from behind on the left. A gross violation of the duties of a motor vehicle driver is not to be seen in this behavior.
Case 2: A person concerned was verbally abused by another road user when he was standing at the traffic light, obviously through no fault of his own. Distracted by this, he let himself be "pulled along" by a starting vehicle and overlooked the fact that the traffic light for his lane was still red. He caused an accident by running over the red light. However, the OLG Hamm decided that in this case there was no gross breach of duty, as required in § 25 I StVG.
Criminology
The psychologists Harald Welzer and Thomas Brudermann describe and analyze in their books how “completely normal people” can get into a “collective dynamic” through “psychological contamination” which, under certain circumstances, turn them into criminals in the wake of others. Here, too, the pulling effect shows its effect.
Financial world
From the psychology of financial crises and the fight against corruption , it is known that an incipient trend, also due to controlled (mis) information, can trigger a drag effect that, if it spreads more strongly, causes the markets to turmoil and the stocks dance leaves. The exploration of collective dynamics provides the explanation: It arises from the psychological contagion, from the dragging effect and the human tendency to orientate and imitate others in the common social environment. Investor behavior, too, often irrationally follows a general trend that has already been initiated, regardless of the real market conditions.
Training consequences
The well-known phenomenon of pulling along and the corresponding risk result in necessary didactic and methodical consequences for traffic education, driver training and adult education.
Traffic education
The misconception of early road traffic educators " Children have no brakes ", which was spread in books and with stickers until the 1990s, led to the fatalistic opinion that children in traffic are hopelessly dependent on the behavior of other road users and as a result to an extensive abstinence from an effective traffic education on the basis of an active self-assurance by the child. The didactician Siegbert A. Warwitz countered the incapacitation of children with the concept of “traffic education from the child”, which he designed, with the thesis “ Children do have brakes. You just have to learn to use it . ”This model of thought abandoned the idea of the child as a helpless creature and was instead based on the understanding of the child as a being willing to learn, ready and capable of age-appropriate self-responsibility and self-assurance. However, child-friendly methods and well-trained educators were required for the corresponding learning processes. As such, the didactic model u. a. the "game in the taboo zone", in which the spontaneous entering of unauthorized rooms outside the playing field is sanctioned as a logical consequence of the game, understandable for every child, by the rules of the game, for example, a "break" in the form of a temporary "hospital treatment" or a "police detention" when entering the dangerous Tabustraße.
Given the principle " Sapere aude ", which has been proclaimed since the Age of Enlightenment ( translated from Immanuel Kant : " Have the courage to use your own understanding "), children in Warwitz must be encouraged to have courage as early as possible beyond dealing with traffic to be able to think for themselves and to take responsibility in all areas of life that affect them, so that even as adolescents they are able to oppose the suggestive forces of their environment and the lure of the commercial market.
Adult education
In the case of young and adult novice drivers, the phenomenon of the dragging effect must be raised from the subconscious through reflection into consciousness. As part of the four-stage development towards traffic readiness, it represents a criterion for the level of “traffic intelligence” that can be reached even in childhood. Society assumes it is normal behavior for adult road users. To be able to use “the mind as a control organ” is part of the qualification of traffic competence in traffic . In addition, it is generally regarded as a sign of independence and forms the defense against the dragging effect, which can prevent drifting into the drug milieu, into fashion foolishness or market dependency. In the event of deficits in self-regulation, society has assigned driving schools , police and courts a regulatory function, e.g. B. in the form of an individual case treatment and, if necessary, in a prescribed follow-up training, such as through traffic lessons .
literature
- Thomas Brudermann: mass psychology. Psychological contagion, collective dynamics, simulation models . Springer Verlag, Vienna / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-211-99760-4 .
- Thomas Fenzl: The mass psychology of the financial market crisis. US housing bubble, subprime disaster, debt bubble and their effects . Springer Verlag, Vienna / New York 2009, ISBN 978-3-211-98090-3 .
- Peter Hentschel (greeting), Peter König , Peter Dauer ( editing ): Road traffic law (= Beck's short comments . Volume 5). 43rd, revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-67136-4 .
- Gustave Le Bon : Psychology of the Masses , 15th edition, Kröner, Stuttgart 1982.
- Roland Schurig: StVO - Comment on the road traffic regulations with VwV-StVO. 13th edition, Kirschbaum Verlag, Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-7812-1641-9 .
- Siegbert A. Warwitz : Traffic education from the child. Perceiving-playing-thinking-acting , Schneider-Verlag, 6th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2009, ISBN 978-3-8340-0563-2 .
- Siegbert A. Warwitz: The development of traffic feeling, traffic sense, traffic intelligence and traffic behavior in school beginners. The Karlsruhe model. In: Z. f. Traffic Education 4 (1986) 93-98.
- Harald Welzer : perpetrator. How normal people become mass murderers. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-10-089431-6 .
Web links
- Pull-along effect in the event of red light violation, accessed on September 10, 2016
- Dragging effect as a momentary failure , accessed on September 10, 2016.
- No driving ban with pull-in effect , accessed on September 12, 2016.
- Text of the Road Traffic Regulations (StVO)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gustave Le Bon: Psychology of the Masses , Kröner, 15th edition, Stuttgart 1982
- ↑ Siegbert A. Warwitz: We learn to operate the inner brake , In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child. Perceiving-Playing-Thinking-Acting , 6th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 119–122
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: We learn to take responsibility , In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child. Perceiving-Playing-Thinking-Acting , 6th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 181–189
- ↑ OLG Hamm, decision of November 9, 1999 - 2 Ss OWi 1065/99222
- ↑ Red light violation due to a drag effect according to § 25 Paragraph 1 StVO; BKatV § 2 Paragraph 1 No. 4
- ↑ OLG Karlsruhe NZV 196, 206; NJW 2003, 3719; OLG Düsseldorf NJW 1993, 2063; NZV 2000.91; OLG Stuttgart NStZ-RR 2000, 279; KG Berlin NZV 2002, 50
- ↑ No driving ban in the event of a red light violation caused by the pulling effect ( memento of the original from September 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on September 10, 2016
- ↑ OLG Hamm from 05.05.1994 - Az .: 2 Ss OWi 414/94
- ↑ Harald Welzer: Perpetrator. How normal people become mass murderers. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005
- ↑ Thomas Brudermann: Mass Psychology. Psychological contagion, collective dynamics, simulation models . Springer Verlag, Vienna / New York 2010
- ↑ Thomas Fenzl: The mass psychology of the financial market crisis. US housing bubble, subprime disaster, debt bubble and their effects . Springer Verlag, Vienna / New York 2009
- ↑ HD Barth: Children have no brakes! Niedernhausen 1994
- ^ I. Peter-Habermann: Children have to die , Reinbek 1979
- ↑ Siegbert A. Warwitz: We learn to operate the inner brake , In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child. Perceiving-playing-thinking-acting (1993), 6th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 119–122
- ↑ Immanuel Kant: Answering the question: What is Enlightenment? In: Berlinische Monatsschrift 4 (1784), pp. 481–494
- ↑ Siegbert A. Warwitz: The thinking ability as a control organ , In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child. Perceiving-playing-thinking-acting , 6th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 130-136
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: The development of traffic awareness, traffic senses, traffic intelligence and traffic behavior in school beginners . The Karlsruhe model, In: Z. f. Traffic Education 4 (1986) 93-98