Effects of Social Identity in Responses to Emergency Mass Evacuations, 2004-2007

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.This is a mixed methods study. The study examined the conditions in which crowds in emergencies act co-operatively and co-ordinate their behaviour. The study sought to help explain gaps in existing theoretical models - such as why it is that people in emergencies take risks to help strangers. The initial hypothesis was that mutual concern, helping and co-ordination were more likely when crowd members shared a common identity. Selfish behaviour associated with mass panic may occur if there was no shared identity. Two strands of experimental research were carried out to investigate the hypothesis. First, there was an experimental design in which people with collective or personal identities made salient were asked to evacuate a room. Second, an experiment using computer visualisation was developed of an evacuation from a fire in an underground rail station, and is on the model of a computer game. A third strand of research involved interviewing survivors and witnesses of mass emergencies and disasters. In the first study, 21 people involved in 11 different events were interviewed about how they and others had behaved and how they had felt. These events include survivors of the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium crush; 2001 Accra Sports Stadium stampede; 1985 Bradford City stadium fire; September 11 2001 evacuation of Canary Wharf; 2002 evacuation of a skyscraper, Frankfurt; 2002 Brighton Beach Party overcrowding; 1983 Harrods Department Store car-bomb; a 1971 hotel fire in Cambridge, MA, USA; 1988 sinking of the cruise ship Jupiter; 1991 sinking of the ship Oceana; and the 2003 Grantham train derailment. A second interview study explored the development of psychological unity in the crowd. This study examined responses among witnesses and survivors of the London bombings of 7 July 2005. This comprised of interviews with 12 people and email interviews with 11 others. Additionally, eye-witness accounts reported in ten different national newspapers in the days immediately after the bombings were coded and analysed. Analysis of results supported the researchers' hypothesis but also suggested a more dynamic account of psychological responses to emergency evacuation and disasters. While a common identity did indeed predict mutual helping and concern (and even self-sacrifice to help strangers on some occasions), a common identity itself is an emergent function of the experience of an emergency or disaster. Further information is available from the project's web page or ESRC award page.Main Topics:Reports of crowd behaviour in mass emergencies, the myth of mass panic, the role of a shared social identity in emeregencies, experimental simulations of crowd emergencie