Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T06:51:46.001Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Crowd Behavior at Mass Gatherings: A Literature Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Kathryn M. Zeitz ,
Heather M. Tan ,
M Grief ,
PC Couns  and
Christopher J. Zeitz
Kathryn M. Zeitz*
Affiliation:
Chief Nursing Officer, St. John Ambulance, South Australia, Australia
Heather M. Tan
Affiliation:
PhD Candidate, Discipline of General Practice, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
M Grief
Affiliation:
PhD Candidate, Discipline of General Practice, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
PC Couns
Affiliation:
PhD Candidate, Discipline of General Practice, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Christopher J. Zeitz
Affiliation:
State Medical Officer, St. John Ambulance, South Australia, Australia
*
18A Farrell StreetGlenelg SouthSouth Australia, 5045Australia E-mail: kmzeitz@bigpond.com.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Gaining an understanding of crowd behavior is important in supporting timely and appropriate crowd management principles in the planning and provision of emergency services at mass gatherings. This paper provides a review of the current understanding of the psychological factors of a crowd within the psychosocial domain as they apply to mass-gathering settings.

It can be concluded from this review that there is a large theory-practice gap in relation to crowd psychology and the mass-gathering setting. The literature has highlighted two important elements of crowd behavior—there must be a “seed” and people must engage. Understanding these behaviors may provide opportunities to change crowd behavior outcomes.

Keywords

behaviorcrowdmoodmass gatheringspsychological aspects
Type
Comprehensive Review
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , February 2009 , pp. 32 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Arbon, P: The development of conceptual models for mass-gathering health. Prehospital Disast Med 2004;9:208–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Milsten, AM, Maguire, BJ, Bissell, RA, Seaman, KG: Mass-gathering medical care: a review of the literature. Prehospital Disast Med 2002;17:151–167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3. Zeitz, K, Bolton, S, Dippy, R, Dowling, Y, Francis, L, Thorne, J, Butler, T, Zeitz, C: Measuring emergency services workloads at mass gathering events. Australian Journal of Emergency Management 2007;22(4):24–30.Google Scholar
4. McPhail, C: Blumer's theory of collective behavior: The development of a non-symbolic interaction explanation. 1989. Sociol Q 30(3):401–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5. Reicher, SD: The Psychology of Crowd Dynamics. In: Hogg, M, Tindale, R, eds. Balckwell Handbook of Social Psychology: Group Processes. Malden USA: Blackwell, 2001.Google Scholar
6. McPhail, C: The Myth of the Madding Crowd. New York: Aldine De Gruyter; 1991.Google Scholar
7. Reicher, S, Potter, J: Psychological theory as intergroup perspective: A comparative analysis of “scientific” and “lay”: Accounts of crowd events. Hum Relat 1985;38:167–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Waddington, D, Jones, K, Critcher, C: Flashpoints of Public Disorder. In: Gaskell, G, Benewick, R, eds. The Crowd in Contemporary Britain. London: Sage Publications; 1987.Google Scholar
9. Turner, JC, Oakes, PJ, Haslam, SA, McGarty, C: Self and collective: Cognition and social context. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 1994;20:454–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10. Reicher, SD: “The Battle of Westminster”: Developing the social identity model of crowd behavior in order to explain the initiation and development of collective conflict. Eur J Soc Psychol 1996;26:115–134.3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11. Drury, J, Reicher, S: The intergroup dynamics of collective empowerment: Substantiating the social identity model of crowd behavior. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations 1999;2:381–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12. Stott, C, Drury, J: Crowds, context and identity: Dynamic categorization processes in the ‘poll tax riot.’ Hum Relat 2000;53:247–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13. Drury, J, Reicher, S: Collective action and psychological change: The emergence of new social identities. Br J Soc Psychol 2000;39:579–604.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14. Vider, S: Rethinking crowd violence: Self-categorization theory and the Woodstock 1999 riot. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior 2004;34:141–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15. Young, K: Standard deviations: An update on North American sports crowd disorder. Sociol Sport J 2002;19:237–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16. Doosje, B, Spears, R, Ellemers, N: Social identity as both cause and effect: The development of group identification in response to anticipated and actual changes in the intergroup status hierarchy. Br J Soc Psychol 2002;41:57–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17. Drury, J: When the mobs are looking for witches to burn nobody's safe: Talking about the reactionary crowd. Discourse and Society 2002;13:41–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18. Drury, J, Cocking, C, Beale, J, Hanson, C, Rapley, F: The phenomenology of empowerment in collective action. Br J Soc Psychol 2005;44:309–328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19. Drury, J, Reicher, S: Explaining enduring empowerment: A comparative study of collective action and psychological outcomes. Eur J Soc Psychol 2005;35:35–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20. Australia, EM: Manual 2—Safe and Healthy Mass Gatherings. A Health, Medical and Safety Planning Manual for Public Events. Commonwealth of Australia: Dickson ACT, 1999.Google Scholar
21. Pines, A, Maslach, C: Experiencing Social Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1993.Google Scholar
22. Zeitz, KM, Zeitz, CJ, Arbon, P: Forecasting medical work at mass-gathering events: predictive model versus retrospective review. Prehospital Disast Med 2005;20:164–168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
23. Slepicka, P: Psychology of the Sport Spectator. In: Biddle, SJ, ed. European Perspectives on Exercise and Sport Psychology. England: Human Kinetics Publishers; 1995.Google Scholar
24. Stott, C, Reicher, S: Crowd action as intergroup process: Introducing the police perspective. Eur J Soc Psychol 1998;28:509–529.3.0.CO;2-C>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25. Wann, DL, Grieve, FG: Biased evaluations of in-group and out-group spectator behavior at sporting events: the importance of team identification and threats to social identity. J Soc Psychol 2005;145:531–545.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
26. Reicher, S: “The Crowd” century: Reconciling practical success with theoretical failure. Br J Soc Psychol 1996;35(4):535–553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27. Farkas, I, Helbing, D, Vicsek, T: Mexican waves in an excitable medium. Nature 2002;419:131–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28. Cowie, A: Modelling of Crowd Dynamics. Available at http://www.acrc.unisa.edu.au/groups/sysarchsec/crowd.html. Accessed 18 October 2006.Google Scholar
29. Still, K. Understanding crowd dynamics: The main event. Available at http://www.crowddynamics.com. Accessed 04 October 2006.Google Scholar
30. Arbon, P: The development of a Web-based algorithm for the predication of patient presentation rates at mass gatherings. Australian Journal of Emergency Management 2002;17(1):60–64.Google Scholar
31. Health and Safety Executive: The Event Safety Guide (A Guide to Health, Safety and Welfare at Music and Similar Events). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1999.Google Scholar
32. Kemp, C: Public lecture:Safety and crowd management.Cultural, universal and partisan tensions in mass crowd gatherings. Available at http://www.acem.uts.edu.au/pdfs/chris_kemp_lecture.pdf. Accessed 04 October 2006.Google Scholar
33. Michener, HA, Delamater, J, Myers, D: Collective Behaviors & Social Movements Social Psychology. Belmont USA: Thomas Wadsworth; 2004.Google Scholar
34. Lofland, J: Crowd joys. Urban Life 1982;10:355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35. Scheepers, D, Spears, R, Doosje, B, Manstead, ASR: Two functions of verbal intergroup discrimination: Identity and instrumental motives as a result of group identification and threat. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2003;29:568–577.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed