Word.ws English Dictionary

deindividuation

deindividuation noun: the situation where antinormative behaviour is released in groups in which individuals are not seen or paid attention to as individuals; immersion in a group to the point at which the individual ceases to be seen as such.

Noun

deindividuation (uncountable)

  1. The situation where antinormative behaviour is released in groups in which individuals are not seen or paid attention to as individuals; immersion in a group to the point at which the individual ceases to be seen as such.
    • Digital media allow almost unlimited opportunity for wilful deindividuation. They almost require it. The implications of those liberties, of the ubiquity of anonymity and the language of the crowd, are only beginning to be felt.2011 July 23, Tim Adams, “How the internet created an age of rage”, in The Observer

Origin of deindividuation

From de- + individuation, first described in 1952 by Leon Festinger and colleagues.

Questions about deindividuation

What does deindividuation mean?
Deindividuation means the situation where antinormative behaviour is released in groups in which individuals are not seen or paid attention to as individuals; immersion in a group to the point at which the individual ceases to be seen as such.
What part of speech is deindividuation?
Deindividuation is a noun.

Words near deindividuation in the dictionary

  1. deindividualizing
  2. deindividuate
  3. deindividuated
  4. deindividuates
  5. deindividuating
  6. deindividuation
  7. deindoctrination
  8. deinduce
  9. deinduced
  10. deinduces
  11. deinducing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deindividuation (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “deindividuation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deindividuation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.