Transcript shared social identity

Crowd psychology:
Practical implications
Dr John Drury & Dr Chris Cocking
University of Sussex
In association with:
Brighton University
Re-cap: Effects of shared social
identity on crowd behaviour
What we know:
1. There is shared understanding
2. People talk to strangers
3. There is social support
4. People coordinate their actions
5. People adhere to their own group’s norms
How crowd psychology can be used to enhance collective
resilience, crowd self-regulation and safety
1.
Facilitate crowd self-regulation in ‘normal’ events
– We rely on crowd members to regulate their behaviour
– Understanding crowd psychology can help us enhance
crowd self-regulation
2.
Enhance crowd capacities for collective resilience in
emergencies
– Work with and facilitate adaptive response (social
support) in the crowd
1. Preventing disaster by
knowing your crowd
• ‘Audience profile’
– What are the social
identities?
– What is the ‘culture’
(norms and values)?
• Where do they like
to gather (Shia vs
Sunni at the Hajj)?
• What offends your
crowd?
• Is an inflatable
plastic shark
threatening?
• BBBII
• Police perspective: widespread ‘disorder’
Everywhere people were committing
offences. I was asked to hold a male’s joint,
whilst he made a phone call, sitting on top of
plastic-roofed toilet…
(PG2 - Police Officer)
• BBBII
• Stewards saw mutual aid, spontaneous
order, and norms in the crowd
• They worked with the norms.
How are we going to get him down? So I
said, you ask the voice of God [DJ Fatboy
Slim], turn the music down, ask the voice of
God very nicely to say [ ] ‘please get down,
because the party can’t carry on until you’re
back on the ground, but do it safely please.’
Peer pressure will bring him down, and he
won’t get his head kicked in, and that will stop
anybody else climbing up. Music came down,
voice of God came over, he waved a bit,
everyone cheered, and they’re all going
‘down, down, down’, so he comes sliding all
the way down, everyone cheers and that’s it.
No one else climbed a lamp post all night.
(City council environmental health officer)
2. Communication in an
emergency
• If shared social identity can help a crowd
respond adaptively to an emergency, then:
– Increase communications which facilitate
shared social identity
– Reduce communications which inhibit shared
social identity
• Consider:
– The language we use: e.g., ‘passengers’
versus ‘customers’ (the language of money is
individualising!)
– What is the crowd’s own name for its shared
identity?
Re-cap
Under-reaction (not over-reaction) is the main
problem in emergencies
Research: What are the factors that increase
prompt evacuation?
• If under-reaction (not over-reaction) is the
main problem, then:
– Increase information
– Emphasise communication
• To increase public understanding of:
– the danger
– how to respond
• Poor information/communication can be
worse than useless:
• When the crowd perceives danger, lack
of information →
1. Anxiety
2. Lack of trust in crowd safety management
A vicious circle…
Danger
‘Don’t tell
them – they
might
panic!’
+
Lack of
communication
Crowd
anxiety
+
Lack of
trust in
authorities
Evidence that information works!
Experiment on Newcastle Metro
Condition 1: simple alarm
Condition 2: P.A. system order to evacuate
Condition 3: P.A. system announced location and
nature of threat (fire) and order to evacuate
Which condition led to the fastest (i.e. most
effective) evacuation?
Proulx & Sime (1991)
Example of good info delivery
‘You need to be scared, you need to be concerned,
you need to get your butts moving out of New
Orleans now! … We are ordering a mandatory
evacuation of the city of New Orleans starting in the
morning at 8am on the West Bank… we give you 4
hours to evacuate’
(Ray Negin, Mayor of New Orleans. 31st August 2008)
• For information to be communication
requires trust.
• BUT communication can also create trust
• Shared social identification is the pivot
A worked example:
Communication in CBRN mass
decontamination
Strategies of management:
(a) quarantine (not
dispersal/starburst) for
(b) decontamination
Review of decon incidents
•
Public complained of lack of information, lack of concern for
their dignity
•
These concerns made them less willing to comply with
decontamination!
•
Increased risk of spreading contaminants!
Carter et al. (2015)
An intervention study
1.
2.
3.
4.
Effective responder communication 
Enhanced the legitimacy of the responders 
Increased identification with them 
Reduced anxiety, increased cooperation, increased
compliance, faster decon
Carter, H., Drury, J., Amlôt, R., Rubin, G. J., & Williams, R. (2014). PLoS One 9(3): e89846. DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0089846
A virtuous circle…
Effective
coms
1. Believe &
internalise
2. Cooperate
& coordinate
1. Reduced
anxiety
2. Legitimacy
Shared
identity
Crowds as part of solution rather than part of
problem
People often try to help others if they have resources/
ability to do so
Influential figures can emerge from crowd who encourage
co-operative norms – ‘zero-responders’…
Zero-responders
Rather than too shocked or ‘panicked’ to act,
bystanders often intervene in emergencies
• How to encourage ‘zero-responders’ before
professionals arrive? (1st aid kits given out
by Israeli ambulance service

In sieges, there may be delays before help arrives; Paris
Nov 2015, Kenya Westgate Mall 2013
– http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrow
d.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/paris-attacks-theiraftermath.html
Cocking (2013) Int J of Emergency Services
Cocking (2015) Crisis Response Journal
TAKE-HOME MESSAGE
1. Social identities explain how crowds behave in
events
2. Social identities operate in crowds in emergencies
3. We can use these ideas to design interventions to
enhance crowd safety
Acknowledgements
Colleagues:
Hani Alnabulsi, Richard Amlôt, Holly Carter, David Novelli, Steve Reicher, James
Rubin, Clifford Stott, Richard Williams
Funders
• Leverhulme Trust, F/00 230/AO
• ESRC, RES-000-23-0446
• Public Health England
Contact details
[email protected]; [email protected]
Crowds and Identities research group:
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology/crowdsidentities/
Chris Cocking Blog:
http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/
Twitter:
@DrJohnDrury: @DrChrisCocking