All feeling of shame rests upon isolation of the individual; it arises whenever stress is laid upon the ego, whenever the attention of a circle is drawn to such an individual—in reality or only in his imagination—which at the same time is felt to be in some way incongruous. … It is one of the strangest social-psychological phenomena, in which this characteristic of concerted action is well exemplified, that many fashions tolerate breaches of modesty which, if suggested to the individual alone, would be angrily repudiated. But as dictates of fashion they find ready acceptance. The feeling of shame is eradicated in matters of fashion, because it represents a united action, in the same way that the feeling of responsibility is extinguished in the participants of a crime committed by a mob, each member of which, if left to himself, would shrink from violence.

XREF: Parallels mob psychology theory and bystander effect literature — diffusion of responsibility in crowds. FICTION: Useful tension for a scene about characters doing things en masse they'd never do alone.

XREF: Echoes mob-mentality and deindividuation research (Zimbardo, Le Bon) about diffusion of responsibility in crowds. Also connects to social conformity dynamics in fashion systems.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 735