herd instinct
the impulse or tendency toward clustering or acting in a group, especially the presumed instinct toward or need for gregariousness and conformity.
Origin of herd instinct
1Words Nearby herd instinct
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use herd instinct in a sentence
Their operation is intensified and regularized by herd instinct.
The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism | Bertrand RussellWar is the result of the action of the herd instinct in man upon the old instinct of aggression.
The Psychology of Nations | G.E. PartridgeThe scheme is based on the herd instinct—on the tendency of most creatures to follow their leader.
The dread shown by small children would seem already to be an expression of this herd instinct.
Group Psychology and The Analysis of The Ego | Sigmund FreudBut Trotter is under no necessity of tracing back the herd instinct, for he characterizes it as primary and not further reducible.
Group Psychology and The Analysis of The Ego | Sigmund Freud
British Dictionary definitions for herd instinct
psychol the inborn tendency to associate with others and follow the group's behaviour
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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