From Masses to Networks: The Manifestation of Crowd Psychology in the Malaysian Political Twittersphere

Abstract

This paper examines how crowd psychology manifests in political discourse and sentiment on Twitter during Malaysia’s 2020 Sheraton Move crisis, drawing on Gustave Le Bon’s theory of the crowd and Jan van Dijk’s network society framework and mapping it through Social Network Analysis. The study revisits Le Bon's (1895) conception of the crowd as emotionally driven within the context of the Malaysian Twittersphere. Van Dijk (2012) reframes these dynamics within a digitally networked environment, where decentralised and networked interactions shape participation and expression. Using SNA on a dataset of tweets on the Sheraton Move, the study maps the political discourse and examines the prevailing political sentiment. The findings reveal a polarised environment, defined largely by the pro- and anti-Sheraton Move camps, with 57 per cent of the discourse opposing the political move and 13 per cent supporting it. Collective emotions, such as anger, frustration, and fear, dominated the discourse. However, they did not reflect mindless conformity; instead, these emotional sentiments articulated a political-moral critique and civic discontent that, to some extent, challenge Le Bon’s notion of the irrational crowd. The study shows that in contemporary networked settings, collective emotions can also cultivate political consciousness, shape discourse, and mobilise the public.