enced by external cues. Diener (1980) maintained that the deindividuated person's behavior is less inhibited by long-term norms and long-term consequences because of a lack of self-monitoring and other self-regulatory processes. Therefore, the person whose attention is focused on the group is more reactive to immediate emotions, motives, and situational cues. Since deindividuated persons are less likely to self-regulate their behavior in accord with long-term norms, they are more likely to perform disinhibited behaviors.The purpose of the present experiments was to test deindividuation predictions that were derived from perceptual/attentional principles. More specifically, group characteristics such as size and homogeneity were varied and self-consciousness and disinhibited behavior were measured. Based on the theories of deindividuation, we predicted that a number of social factors could decrease self-consciousness -large groups, dense groups, similar groups, and few observers-and thus lead to more disinhibited behavior. Thus, the present studies allowed both a test of deindividuation predictions and an exploration of some of the natural causes of self-consciousness.

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