Crowd Behaviour 2 Flashcards
Transformations NOT:
- Loss of self/deindividuation
- Loss of self-control
- ‘Mob mentality’
Three transformations of crowd psychology:
- Cognitive
- Relational
- Affective
Cognitive transformation or self-stereotyping:
- Shift from seeing myself in terms of my personal identity to seeing myself in terms of my social identity
- I am a student
- I am an Arsenal fan
- I am a catholic
- I am a member of the St Paul’s community
Cognitive transformation:
· Individuals no longer think and act on basis of personal (and idiosyncratic) beliefs and values
· Instead, they think and act on their understandings of the category/group’s norms, values, beliefs, and interests.
Cognitive transformation 2:
· Collective behaviour in the St Pauls riot was limited and patterned in line with the social identity (‘we as St Pauls residents’) shared by participants:
- Police were targets
- Banks, chain store; not local shops or houses (Reicher, 1984)
Relational transformation:
· If you also have the same social identity as me…
· Instead of seeing you as ‘other’, I see you as part of ‘we’, ‘us’
- i.e., we share social identity
Relational transformation 2:
· Shared identity can result in a sense of connection and intimacy - even with strangers.
- More acceptance/enjoyment of others’ close physical presence (Novelli et al, 2010)
- Reduced disgust at others’ bodily odours (Reicher et al, 2016)
- Trust, feeling safe
- Giving and expecting social support
Affective transformation:
· Social identity as the prism through which people appraise physical stimuli and experience relational intimacy
· In addition:
- Being supported by others feels good
- Support from others for desired goals is empowering which also feels good
- Validation of emotions by others in the group - makes them more intense
Mass gatherings:
· An occasion, either organised or spontaneous where the “number of people attending is sufficient to strain the planning and response resources of the community, city, or notion hosting the event” (World Health Organisation, 2008)
· E.g., olympics, world cup, glastonbury, Hajj
Hajj:
· One of the 5 pillars of Islam
· 2-3 million people at a time
· Global gathering
· Six days of rituals in around Mecca
‘Mass gatherings medicine’:
· Infectious diseases
· Crowd crushes
Mass gatherings - crowd crushes:
· Stampedes?:
- Most things called ‘stampedes’ in the media do not involve running
- Deaths often caused by crowd collapse in extreme density
· Panic?:
- Fear is a consequence rather than a cause of crushes
Hajj 2:
· Despite extreme levels of density every year, crushing accidents are extremely rate at Hajj
Wellbeing from attending a mass gathering - an example:
· Magh Mela - Hindu festival takes place in India for a month every year
· An aversive crowd experience?
· 20 million people in a ‘tent city’
· Densely populated
· Sanitary conditions and facilities are extremely poor
· Constant loud noise
Wellbeing from attending a mass gathering - an example 2:
· How do music activities affect health and wellbeing?:
- Dingle et al 2021 - scoping review of 63 studies examining psychological mechanisms
- Some mechanisms - memory and attention, mood and emotion regulation, social bonding and connection
- Key point - effects of both music itself and enjoying the music with others