The book compares the behavior of the masses of people during wars, fires, natural and man-made disasters, mass unrest on the streets with the social behavior of animals. Many patterns of crowd behavior have evolutionary roots. Over the course of evolution, social and, especially, herd behavior of animals has developed as an adaptation to the environment, helping survival. But the behavior of crowds of people often leads to mass deaths, contradicts the foundations of human morality. Most often, the crowd is not adaptive. During panic and riots, the behavior of the crowd largely depends on the behavior of the leaders.