Rethinking the Psychology of Crowds: Reading Answers & Explanations
IELTS Reading practice test · 14 questionsAcademichard
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About this passage
The passage opens: “For more than a century, the behaviour of people in crowds has fascinated and worried those who study society. The tone was set in 1895 by the French writer Gustave Le Bon, whose short book on the crowd became enormously influential.”
- Passage length: about 749 words
- Questions: 14
- Question types: Matching Features, Note Completion, True / False / Not Given
“Rethinking the Psychology of Crowds” is an original IELTS-style practice passage written by IELTS-Bank. It is not taken from an official IELTS or Cambridge test, so these answers only apply to our version.
Answer key at a glance
Rethinking the Psychology of Crowds answers with explanations
Questions 1–5: Matching Features
Match each statement with the correct view, A or B. You may use either letter more than once.
- A. the classic view of Gustave Le Bon
- B. the findings of modern research
- 1
Being in a crowd strips away individuality and makes people irrational.
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Answer: A — the classic view of Gustave Le Bon
Why: This option is correct because the passage states that Gustave Le Bon argued individuals in a crowd lose their individuality and self-control, behaving like a single irrational entity.
Where to find it · Paragraph 1 “People are gripped by a kind of collective mind, lose their sense of individuality and self-control, and sink to a more primitive and emotional level, so that a gathering of reasonable citizens can behave, in his view, like a single irrational beast.”
- 2
In an emergency, people often cooperate and help strangers.
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Answer: B — the findings of modern research
Why: Modern research shows that in emergencies, people often display a shared sense of common fate, leading to cooperation and helping strangers, contrary to the popular image of chaotic and selfish behavior.
Where to find it · Paragraph 4 “The popular image is of a terrified mob trampling one another in blind panic, yet careful studies of real disasters repeatedly find something else: people remaining surprisingly calm, forming orderly lines, and going out of their way to help complete strangers to escape.”
- 3
Emotions spread through a crowd by contagion.
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Answer: A — the classic view of Gustave Le Bon
Why: This option is correct because the passage states that Gustave Le Bon believed emotions and impulses spread through a crowd almost like a disease, reflecting the idea of contagion.
Where to find it · Paragraph 2 “Le Bon believed that emotions and impulses spread through a crowd almost like a disease, leaping from person to person until the whole mass was swept along by feelings that no individual would have acted on alone.”
- 4
A shared social identity gives crowd behaviour order and meaning.
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Answer: B — the findings of modern research
Why: Modern research by psychologists like Stephen Reicher and John Drury shows that a shared social identity in crowds provides order and meaning, contrasting with the outdated view of crowds as mindless mobs.
Where to find it · Paragraph 3 “Rather than losing their identity, people in a crowd often take on a shared social identity, a strong sense of belonging to the group, and it is this common identity that gives collective behaviour its order and its meaning.”
- 5
Many crowd disasters are caused by physical crushing rather than panic.
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Answer: B — the findings of modern research
Why: This option is correct because the passage states that modern research shows crowd disasters are often due to physical crushes caused by poor design or mismanagement, not by panic or irrational behavior.
Where to find it · Paragraph 5 “When crowd disasters do occur, the cause is usually not madness but a physical crush, in which too many bodies are forced into too small a space, often as a result of poor design or mismanagement, until people are injured simply by the pressure of those around them.”
Questions 6–10: Note Completion
Complete the notes below.
Complete the notes using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Views of crowd behaviour 1895: Gustave (6) ______ argued that crowds are irrational and primitive. He believed that people in a crowd lose their sense of (7) ______ . Modern researchers say a shared social (8) ______ shapes how crowds behave. In emergencies, people often (9) ______ one another rather than panic. Many crowd disasters are actually caused by a physical (10) ______ .
- 6
1895: Gustave ______ argued that crowds are irrational and primitive.(max 2 words)
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Answer: Le Bon
Why: The answer is found in the second sentence of the passage, which states that Gustave Le Bon's influential book argued that individuals in a crowd lose their rationality and become primitive.
Where to find it · Paragraph 1 “The tone was set in 1895 by the French writer Gustave Le Bon, whose short book on the crowd became enormously influential.”
- 7
He believed that people in a crowd lose their sense of ______ .(max 2 words)
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Answer: individuality
Why: The answer is found in the passage where it states that Le Bon argued people in a crowd lose their sense of individuality and self-control, sinking to a primitive and emotional level.
Where to find it · Paragraph 1 “People are gripped by a kind of collective mind, lose their sense of individuality and self-control, and sink to a more primitive and emotional level, so that a gathering of reasonable citizens can behave, in his view, like a single irrational beast.”
- 8
Modern researchers say a shared social ______ shapes how crowds behave.(max 2 words)
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Answer: identity
Why: The answer is found in the section where modern researchers argue that people in a crowd adopt a shared social identity, which influences the organized and meaningful behavior of the group.
Where to find it · Paragraph 3 “A crowd of football supporters, a crowd of worshippers and a crowd of protesters behave in strikingly different ways, not because the psychology of crowds changes but because the identity that binds each one is different, and that shared sense of who 'we' are shapes what the group considers right and reasonable to do.”
- 9
In emergencies, people often ______ one another rather than panic.(max 2 words)
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Answer: help
Why: The answer is found in the section describing how, contrary to popular belief, studies of real disasters show that people often assist each other, with strangers helping one another even in life-threatening situations.
Where to find it · Paragraph 4 “The popular image is of a terrified mob trampling one another in blind panic, yet careful studies of real disasters repeatedly find something else: people remaining surprisingly calm, forming orderly lines, and going out of their way to help complete strangers to escape.”
- 10
Many crowd disasters are actually caused by a physical ______ .(max 2 words)
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Answer: crush
Why: The answer comes from the passage section stating that crowd disasters are usually caused by a "physical crush," where too many people are confined in a small space, leading to injuries.
Where to find it · Paragraph 5 “When crowd disasters do occur, the cause is usually not madness but a physical crush, in which too many bodies are forced into too small a space, often as a result of poor design or mismanagement, until people are injured simply by the pressure of those around them.”
Questions 11–14: True / False / Not Given
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Write TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN.
- 11
Gustave Le Bon published his book on crowds in 1895.
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Answer: TRUE
Why: The passage states that Gustave Le Bon set the tone in 1895 with his influential short book on the crowd, confirming the publication year.
Where to find it · Paragraph 1 “The tone was set in 1895 by the French writer Gustave Le Bon, whose short book on the crowd became enormously influential.”
- 12
Le Bon believed that being in a crowd makes people more rational.
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Answer: FALSE
Why: Le Bon argued that in a crowd, individuals lose their sense of individuality and self-control, becoming more primitive and emotional, which makes them less rational.
Where to find it · Paragraph 1 “People are gripped by a kind of collective mind, lose their sense of individuality and self-control, and sink to a more primitive and emotional level, so that a gathering of reasonable citizens can behave, in his view, like a single irrational beast.”
- 13
Modern research suggests that mass panic is less common than is often believed.
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Answer: TRUE
Why: Modern research indicates that genuine mass panic is rare, as studies show people often remain calm and cooperative during emergencies, contrary to the common belief of widespread panic.
Where to find it · Paragraph 4 “A shared sense of common fate, it seems, tends to produce cooperation rather than every-person-for-themselves chaos, and genuine mass panic turns out to be far rarer than newspaper headlines would suggest.”
- 14
Crowd safety is now a compulsory subject in schools.
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Answer: NOT GIVEN
Why: The statement claims that crowd safety is a compulsory subject in schools, but the passage does not confirm or deny this, focusing instead on how modern research views crowd behavior and the causes of crowd disasters.
Estimated band score for this test
Your raw score out of 14 scaled to the 40-question IELTS Reading (Academic) conversion table. This is the same estimate the practice page shows after you submit. A single passage is a small sample, so treat it as a guide.
| Correct answers | Estimated band |
|---|---|
| 14 / 14 | 9.0 |
| 13 / 14 | 8.5 |
| 12 / 14 | 7.5 |
| 11 / 14 | 7.0 |
| 10 / 14 | 6.5 |
| 8–9 / 14 | 6.0 |
| 7 / 14 | 5.5 |
| 6 / 14 | 5.0 |
| 5 / 14 | 4.5 |
| 4 / 14 | 4.0 |
| 3 / 14 | 3.5 |
| 2 / 14 | 3.0 |
| 1 / 14 | 2.0 |
| 0 / 14 | 0.0 |
Full-test score? Use the IELTS band calculator.
Tips for the question types in this test
Matching Features
- Read the list of options (the features) and locate each one in the passage, underlining every place it appears — names and dates are easy to spot.
- Read the statements and identify the claim or characteristic each one describes.
Common trap: Assuming each option is used exactly once — some are reused and some are distractors.
Full Matching Features strategyNote Completion
- Use headings and indentation to identify the topic of each blank.
- Predict the answer type and mark the word limit.
Common trap: Treating bullets as unrelated when they belong to one passage section.
Full Note Completion strategyTrue / False / Not Given
- Read the statement first and underline the key idea, especially any qualifiers like "all", "only", "never", "always", "more than" or dates and numbers.
- Because the questions follow the order of the passage, scan for the paragraph that deals with the same topic rather than re-reading everything.
Common trap: Confusing "False" with "Not Given": choose False only when the passage actively contradicts the statement; if the passage is silent, it is Not Given.
Full True / False / Not Given strategyPractise “Rethinking the Psychology of Crowds” under exam conditions
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