Professor John Drury - PowerPoint Presentation

Professor John Drury How crowd psychology can contribute to crowd safety

Overview‘The crowd’ in representation and realityRecap – the social identity approach Collective resilience in crowds:A near-disasterThe Hajj

The crowd: recurrent themes: Crowds are characterized by:Heightened emotionality Emotionality instead of intelligence Mindlessness Primitive psychology People ‘swept up’, ‘carried away’ or ‘infected’ by the crowd ‘Any spark’ ignites the crowd Lack of self-control Indiscriminate violence

Example of the crowd in literature: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar : The mob were ‘whipped up’ by Mark Anthony’s speech They murdered Cinna the Poet simply because his name was the same as that of one of the conspirators!

Case study: Food riots‘Instinctual’ explosions, born out of desperation, expressing a ‘basic need’? Primitive, uncontrolled behaviours?   E.P. Thompson: Analysis of around 700 English food riots (1750-1820).  

Food riotsBorn out of sheer desperation? The riots didn’t happen at times of greatest shortage Riots happened when millers or merchants transgressed popular notions of how food should be distributed: hoarding food when it should be sold transporting food when it should be sold locally profiteering when food should be sold cheaply

Food riots2. Primitive and uncontrolled behaviour? Seizure of food was typically discriminating Food riots were more punishment than theft: grain was seized sold at a ‘popular’ price the money and often the grain sacks were handed back to the merchants!  

Food riots"mixed crowds of ordinary people gather angrily before the shops of a miller, a merchant or a baker. They complain about prices, seize the food on hand and cart it off to the market square, sell it to all comers (so long as they belong to the community) at a price they declare to be just, turn over the cash to the owner of the grain or bread, and go home saying they have done justice, as the authorities themselves should have done justice" Tilly, C., Tilly, L. & Tilly, R. (1975) The rebellious century: 1830 - 1930 . London: Dent.  

Food riotsCrowd behaviour was restrained, selective, disciplined and patterned, rather than being indiscriminate. How?   Thompson (1971): food riots were based on a legitimizing notion shared by crowd participants – a common belief that they were all defending (traditional) rights

Food riotsFood rioters’ legitimizing notion was based on their ‘moral economy’: the popular consensus on obligations in relation to local needs opposed the emerging free market system (where goods are taken to wherever they can command the best price)

Recap from earlier lecture

‘Social identity’‘those aspects of an individual's self-concept based upon their social group or category memberships, together with their emotional, evaluative and other psychological correlates’ (Tajfel , 1978, p. 63)

Consequences: When there is shared social identity in a crowd…There is more likely to be social supportPeople give social supportPeople expect social support Drury, Novelli & Stott (2014) Euro J Social Psych

Shared social identity makes coordination in a crowd easierBecause there is shared understanding and expected support for valued group behaviour … Mexican wave Queuing crowd

Identities and norms Each social identity has a different set of values and norms Norm = guide to conduct, what ‘we’ regard as appropriate behaviour

Identities and normsFootball match normsLecture theatre norms Rules of the mosh pit… only for those that identify!

A ‘near disaster’ 250,000 people (60,000 expected) Emergency services overwhelmed Exit routes blocked ‘Panic at DJ Fatboy Slim’s Beach party’ ‘seaside resort [brought] to the brink of disaster’ ( Guardian , 21st July 2002)

A ‘near disaster’Some people climbed up the lighting rigs Part of the crowd was close to the waterline as the tide came in, a crowd surge as people tried to evacuate Risk of crushing; some participants became distressed BUT it WASN’T the disaster that people feared!

Research questionsTo what extent did social identity processes in the crowd explain resilient outcomes (e.g., safety)? H ow did the professional groups and crowd participants perceive that disaster was averted? Drury, Novelli, & Stott (2015) European Journal of Social Psychology

MethodsQuestionnaire survey (n = 48) Interviews Crowd participants (n = 10) Professional groups (n = 10) Contemporaneous archive data Video News reports Message-board material Official materials Written accounts by participants Drury, Novelli, & Stott (2015) European Journal of Social Psychology

Survey results Drury, Novelli, & Stott (2015) European Journal of Social Psychology

Survey results Drury, Novelli, & Stott (2015) European Journal of Social Psychology

How was disaster averted?Steward perspective Crowd perspective ‘Crowd self-organization’: I’m absolutely of the opinion that it was the crowd that stopped the disaster.. none of the barriers, none of the coppers, none of the stew.. stewards, none of the alleged things that were put into place .. to protect the crowd I don’t think any of that mattered, I think it was the crowd that kept everything together (Crowd participant 4) Drury, Novelli, & Stott (2015) European Journal of Social Psychology

‘Working with’ the crowd – building on and defining normsHow 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. (Council environmental health officer) Drury, Novelli, & Stott (2015) European Journal of Social Psychology

HajjMount Arafat

2015: 2000+ pilgrims died at a crossroads at Mina

Hajj 2012Holy Mosque: 356,800m 2 (88.2 acres) Total capacity: two million* Average crowd density level of at least four people per square metre (4ppm 2 ). However, at certain locations, levels of density as people get closer to the Kaaba = 6-8ppm 2

HajjHow does an event which routinely reaches dangerous levels density pass without crushing incidents? Limited psychological research – Mecca closed to non-Muslims

The study 1,194 pilgrimsLanguages groups: 420 (35%) were Arabic speakers, 150 (13%) of Malay, 150 (13%) of Urdu , 120 (10%) of French, 120 (10%) of Persian, 120 (10%) of Turkish, and 114 (9%) of English. Sampled across the three phases of the Hajj in which the Holy Mosque would be most busy. Alnabulsi & Drury (2014) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

MeasuresDensity – people per square metre (researchers’ estimate)Safety (perceived) Identification with the crowdPerceived/expected social support Management competence Alnabulsi & Drury (2014) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Predictors of safetyIdentification with the crowd (β = 0.22, P < 0.001)Perceived support (β = 0.16, P < 0.001)M anagement competence (β = 0.132, P < 0.001) As density increased so safety decreased , β = −0.061, P = 0.037 . Alnabulsi & Drury (2014) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Results 1: moderation Alnabulsi & Drury (2014) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Results 2: mediation Alnabulsi & Drury (2014) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

CaveatsDensity (over 5ppm2) IS dangerous – shock wavesThe argument is not that people never over-react to threats, but that crowds are not inherently the basis of over-reaction Not all crowds are characterized by social support Some crowds are divided; some crowds do not share social identity Social identity: the conditions for social support, not generic behaviours

ConclusionsSocial identification is the basis of:The social support and coordination needed to prevent disaster in potentially dangerous eventsThis analysis has implications for how we think about crowd safety managementCommunity Resilience: the ‘community of circumstance’

AcknowledgementsColleagues:Hani Alnabulsi, David Novelli, Clifford StottFundersLeverhulme Trust, F/00 230/AOKSA cultural bureau Contact details j.drury@sussex.ac.uk Crowds and Identities research group: http ://www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology/crowdsidentities/ @ ProfJohnDrury

ReferencesAlnabulsi, H., & Drury, J. (2014). Social identification moderates the effect of crowd density on safety at the Hajj. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(25), 9091-9096. doi:10.1073/pnas.1404953111 Drury, J., Novelli , D., & Stott, C. (2015).  Managing to avert disaster: Explaining collective resilience at an outdoor music event.   European Journal of Social Psychology, 4,  533–547 .  doi :  10.1002/ejsp.2108 Thompson, E. P. (1971). The moral economy of the English crowd in the eighteenth century. Past & Present, 50 , 76-136.

Overview and guidance readingsDrury, J. (2018). The role of social identity processes in mass emergency behaviour: An integrative review. European Review of Social Psychology 29(1), 38-81. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2018.1471948 Drury, J., Carter, H., Cocking, C., Ntontis, E., Tekin Guven, S., & Amlôt, R. (2019). Facilitating collective psychosocial resilience in the public in emergencies: Twelve recommendations based on the social identity approach . Frontiers in Public Health, 7 (141) doi : 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00141