tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70022547416883218112024-02-06T20:34:08.165-08:00don't panic! correcting myths about the crowdI am a social psychologist who specialises in the study of crowd behaviour. I am interested in all situations when people come together in a crowd, either to protest, go to a sports match or festival, or if they get caught up in a mass emergency. I set this blog up to redress what I saw was a negative bias in the Press against crowds in general. Hope you like it!chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.comBlogger165125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-40439600814938625952022-01-01T09:39:00.002-08:002022-01-02T03:52:13.635-08:00Review of 2021<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">What a year 2021 was! When the COVID-19 pandemic
first struck in early 2020, I remember joking that I might have to
change my choice of career, as there was little chance of being able to
research crowds and group behaviour while we were in the
various lockdowns that were imposed. How wrong I was, as myself & other
social psychologists have never been busier trying to understand and predict
public behaviour in response to the pandemic. In this blog, I will look at how
I engaged with the media and wider public discourse in 2021, to try and help promote the public health behaviours that were necessary to prevent transmission of COVID-19.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Shared identities & collective behaviour: <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Throughout the pandemic, myself and other
behavioural scientists have been saying that to encourage greater compliance
with any necessary public health behaviours (such as mask-wearing, social
distancing, isolation etc) then it's vital during a global public health
emergency to encourage a greater sense of shared responsibility via more
collective identities- a concept also known as 'we-speak'. Along with previous
research that myself and others have done into mass emergencies, having a
shared sense of adversity ('<i>we're all in this together</i>') can encourage
more co-operative and less selfish behaviour. However, as I discussed in
my <a href="https://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.com/2020/05/covid-19-lockdown-all-in-it-together.html" target="_blank">blog</a> from May 2020 (shortly after it emerged that
top UK govt advisor Dominic Cummings had driven over 300 miles to Durham while
infectious with COVID-19), if the public feel that those in authority are not
following their own guidelines, then this can create a sense that '<i>it's one
rule for them & another for us</i>' and erode public compliance with such
guidelines. The importance of maintaining such a sense of shared adversity was a theme I frequently mentioned in the media interviews I was asked to do during 2021 </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Freedom day:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In July 2021 the m<span lang="EN-US">edia and
politicians triumphantly claimed that life would return to normal as legal
restrictions on behaviour were removed despite the level of new infections still
remaining high. The high level of ongoing cases meant that the original
proposed date for 'Freedom Day' was delayed, and in my media interviews on this topic, I highlighted
that such delays risk creating possible public confusion, and that Freedom Day ended
up becoming ‘<i>be more cautious day’</i>. Removing restrictions also suggested
that adherence to COVID restrictions (mask wearing) was now a matter of
personal choice and risked further undermining the public collective spirit and
even risked creating division/conflicts in society between those choosing to
still adhere to COVID behavioural restrictions and those that decided not to. For
</span>more details see the article that John Drury and
other psychologists wrote about the <span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/psychology-freedom-day" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-GB">psychology of Freedom Day</span></a><span style="color: blue;">. </span></span><span lang="EN-US">On a
personal level, </span>I also took advantage of the raising of
restrictions to go to my first gig in 18 months which was Idles at the Eden
project in September, and my thoughts about it are included in the <a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-34/november-2021/collective-experience-joy-and-harmony" target="_blank">The Psychologist</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>'Panic-buying'</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Stockpiling behaviour is a phenomenon that has
happened on different occasions during the pandemic, and, I looked at reports
of 'panic-buying' in my <a href="https://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.com/2020/03/coronavirus-and-social-psychology.html" target="_blank">blog</a> before the 1st national lockdown in March of
last year. I was also interviewed during the fuel crisis in September that
was precipitated by a shortage of HGV drivers post Brexit. Along with others, I
have repeatedly said that politicians and the media should not use the term
'panic-buying' when covering stories about shortage of goods, as it casts
people psychologically in competition with each other and can quickly become a
self-fulfilling prophecy. However, this advice often falls on deaf ears (not
least because coverage of people queuing at petrol stations is considered more newsworthy) and I had to make the
point in my frequent media appearances on this topic that the media and politicians are often to blame in exacerbating these situations. My favourite
one on this topic was probably a live interview for Sky News where the interviewer
got a little defensive when I said the media had to take some responsibility for the situation and someone also <a href="https://twitter.com/RachelElBrook/status/1442877921824215048" target="_blank">tweeted</a> a photo of their cat mooning at me
while I was being interviewed! (see picture below). For more on recent
research into panic buying, see this <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/w5ygx/" target="_blank">pre-print</a> of a paper that I
contributed towards.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYBoHWL0V0Y4XLPhyN8Utegry7YHqkjtZKrEWQ2L1nUu-wkmD5eJmiCszU3zkP-x7KF2WgwHVgOfbdG0YHYnLm68YgN8teJfkUj_eeewQcUdhyphenhyphenEDjfw_gpM6dM67pk4WwGN6PekMZVFOY/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img alt="" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="395" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYBoHWL0V0Y4XLPhyN8Utegry7YHqkjtZKrEWQ2L1nUu-wkmD5eJmiCszU3zkP-x7KF2WgwHVgOfbdG0YHYnLm68YgN8teJfkUj_eeewQcUdhyphenhyphenEDjfw_gpM6dM67pk4WwGN6PekMZVFOY/" width="180" /></span></a></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Feline commentary on my Sky News interview</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Political Leadership (or not?)</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A constant problem that myself and others have
raised this year is the woeful lack of leadership we have seen by the UK
government in its COVID response. John Drury’s latest <a href="http://drury-sussex-the-crowd.blogspot.com/">blog</a> looks at different
possible styles of COVID leadership (identity, coercive & laissez-faire),
concluding that identity leadership is the best approach to follow. However,
all too often during the pandemic, we have seen coercive and/or laissez-faire
leadership whereby the authorities don’t engage with the public and/or abdicate
leadership completely by sending out the message that it’s down to individual
choice whether people comply with public health behaviours recommended to
prevent COVID transmission. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This lack of effective leadership was illustrated in
politicians’ mixed messages with regards to policies on mask-wearing and in
October, I <a href="https://twitter.com/DrChrisCocking/status/1453284466835787781" target="_blank">tweeted</a> that making masks mandatory for everyone in
the House of Commons except for MPs, could reduce the sense of shared adversity
that is so vital in encouraging collective action by the general public to prevent transmission
spread. Furthermore, statements from the Leader of the House, Jacob
Rees-Mogg that Tory MPs didn't need to wear masks because they 'knew each
other' could further erode such shared identities (as well as directly
contradicting current scientific advice that transmission risk was greater with
people you knew). For more detail on the Psychology of mask-wearing, see this
article that appeared in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/26/the-great-cover-up-why-the-uk-stopped-wearing-face-masks?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other" target="_blank">Guardian</a> at the end of
October </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Conclusion:</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-US">Throughout my media appearances in 2021, I
have constantly tried to get the message across that the public are not the weakest
link in emergencies and/or pandemics, but are often wrongly treated as such by
authorities, which can create problems and self-fulfilling prophesies. I would
suggest that this reflects a broader distrust of public behaviour and we need a
more engaging and facilitative approach to emergency management and not the coercive and/or
laissez faire leadership approaches currently used by the UK government. Finally,
I </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">was asked by </span><a href="https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-what-will-the-pandemic-mean-for-the-uk-in-2022-experts-give-their-predictions-12501196" target="_blank">Sky News</a><span style="line-height: 115%;"> for my predictions for 2022 relating to
COVID-19 and public behaviour- we shall see how many of my predictions are supported in 2022</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">References:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">British Psychological Society COVID
resources<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.bps.org.uk/coronavirus-resources">https://www.bps.org.uk/coronavirus-resources</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Independent Sage briefings on COVID-19
13.30 each Friday<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqqwC56XTP8F9zeEUCOttPQ">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqqwC56XTP8F9zeEUCOttPQ</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Public Health England COVID-19 pages<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england">https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sage Pandemic Influenza Behavioural group
(SPI-B)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/independent-scientific-pandemic-influenza-group-on-behaviours-spi-b">https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/independent-scientific-pandemic-influenza-group-on-behaviours-spi-b</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">University of Sussex Groups & COVID
research<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/projects/groups-and-covid/">https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/projects/groups-and-covid/</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p><br /></p><p></p>chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-10867641771466031652020-05-25T06:01:00.002-07:002021-04-21T12:31:13.037-07:00COVID-19 lockdown- 'All in it together'?The news that Boris Johnson's aide Dominic Cummings broke lockdown restrictions to drive 260 miles from London to Durham when he and his wife had possible COVID symptoms has created a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52793991">media</a> storm that is voicing fears that public adherence to the lockdown could unravel. Boris Johnson's insistence on backing Cummings' breach of regulations while millions of others were respecting them (often at great hardship to themselves and their families) has created a significant backlash that has <a href="https://twitter.com/ReicherStephen/status/1264697427157815297">united</a> Tory MPs, religious leaders and both the right-wing and left-wing media. Furthermore, the response to this scandal suggests that the advice given to the government by behavioural experts on how to communicate with the public during major emergencies seems to have been comprehensively ignored.<br />
<br />
Top crowd psychologist Professor Steve Reicher was interviewed on <a href="https://twitter.com/DrChrisCocking/status/1264842371604393985">Good Morning Britain</a> about this emerging scandal on May 25th. He spoke about how the mass adherence to the lockdown restrictions that we saw during the first phase (from 23/3-10/5/20) can be explained psychologically by people acting for the wider common good, and not primarily for their own individual interests (as only a minority of the population are classified as vulnerable groups and/or in need of shielding from COVID). Along with John Drury in an article for the <a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/dont-personalise-collectivise">Psychologist</a> in March written just before the lockdown, he argued that the response to COVID would be more effective if a collective (as opposed to individualized) identity approach was adopted ('<i><b>we're all in this together</b></i>'). Steve Reicher knows what he's talking about, as along with other psychologists, he sits on the SPI-B group that advises the government's Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage-coronavirus-covid-19-response">SAGE</a>) advising on the COVID response. In a series of <a href="https://twitter.com/ReicherStephen/status/1264606173212409857">Tweets</a>, he illustrates how Boris Johnson backing Dominic Cummings has now 'trashed' all the advice they gave about how to communicate with the public in emergencies to encourage greater compliance with necessary safety measures, and this advice echoes recommendations that myself and others have made on how to encourage greater resilience in the public in emergencies (Drury et al, 2019). In my previous <a href="https://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.com/2020/03/coronavirus-and-social-psychology.html">blogpost</a> written just before the initial COVID lockdown in March, I was critical of the delay in implementing the lockdown, especially because it seemed to be based upon concerns about 'behavioural fatigue' in the public at lockdown measures- a concept that lacked evidence in the social sciences, and that myself and others had not heard of previously. In a later <a href="https://staff.brighton.ac.uk/the-hub/Pages/Podcast-Social-distancing-Dr-Chris-Cocking.aspx">Podcast</a> in April that I did for my University, I talked about social distancing and why compliance with the first phase of lockdown restrictions had been much better than expected- something that seemed to have surprised the media and authorities, but not those of us who research mass emergencies, as our work has shown countless examples of how well people and communities can cope with adversity. However, while such collective resilience is heartening to see, and also what we predicted, it cannot be taken for granted, and those in authority need to work with the public to develop and maintain a sense of collective unity that encourages more co-operative behaviour in mass emergencies. <br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Use of rhetoric in emergencies:</b><br />
Over the years I have spoken frequently to those involved in emergency planning and response from many different backgrounds about the research I have done with colleagues. I am pleased to observe that over time there seems to be increased acceptance for our overall message that human behaviour in mass emergencies is usually much better than is often expected, and that the concept of 'mass panic' where people behave selfishly and/or irrationally is largely a myth. This co-operative behaviour is best explained by the emergence of a shared identity during the incident among those affected (most of whom would have been total strangers before the incident began) So, for example, the work I did with John Drury & Steve Reicher on the 7/7/2005 London bombings (Drury et al 2009 a & b) found that those directly affected by the explosions often talked about a shared identity, and a sense that they were '<b><i>all in it together</i>'</b>, so therefore, everyone needed to co-operate together to escape the threat.<br />
<br />
Therefore, I am a passionate advocate of this concept of the togetherness and collective resilience that can emerge from a shared sense of urgency to escape from life threatening emergencies. However, I am also often asked whether such resilience to one-off 'big bang' events can endure in the face of ongoing adversity (such as during the current COVID-19 pandemic). My usual response is that we need to know more to be able to answer that question effectively, but what evidence there is (such as a classic <a href="http://udspace.udel.edu/bitstream/handle/19716/1325/HC%2010.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">study</a> of civilian populations' resilience in the face of the bombing campaigns of WW2), seems to show that collective resilience can endure under the right circumstances. However, such resilience requires those in authority to be honest, open and consistent in their messaging and to treat the public equitably. If there is a public sense of inequity ('<i style="font-weight: bold;">one rule for us and another for them') </i>and/or belief that others are not adhering to necessary social norms (such as adhering to the lockdown restrictions) then such collective resilience can dissipate, as people no longer feel such a shared bond to behave co-cooperatively and are more likely to behave competitively. Studies of international emergencies (such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake- Rahill et al, 2014) have also found that if disasters exacerbate existing inequality, then this can lead to tension and/or violence between the 'haves' and 'have-nots'. Therefore, appeals by politicians for people to come together in emergencies need to be backed up with real practical attempts to engender and maintain such collective unity, otherwise it risks becoming empty rhetoric that will simply fall on deaf ears. <br />
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<b>Conclusion:</b></div>
The current scandal regarding Dominic Cummings' visit to Durham in breach of lockdown restrictions should not just be a political point scoring exercise, as there could be real consequences for overall public behaviours in this current pandemic. So for instance, if people become aware that others are not staying at home and/or not maintaining appropriate social distancing when outside, then they will be less motivated to do so themselves, and this can quickly become a self-fulfilling prophesy (especially if the media report stories of people visiting beauty spots en masse). If the actions of Dominic Cummings erode further public trust in and compliance with the current lockdown restrictions, we may live (or not) to regret the consequences of how this scandal affects our ability to maintain a united response to the current COVID pandemic.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>References:</b><br />
<br />
Drury, J., Cocking, C., & Reicher, S. (2009a). Everyone for themselves? Understanding how crowd solidarity can arise in an emergency: An interview study of disaster survivors. <i>British Journal of Social Psychology</i> <i>48</i>. <span style="text-indent: -14.2pt;">487-506</span><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Drury, J., Cocking, C., Reicher, S. (2009b). The nature of collective ‘resilience’: Survivor reactions to the July 7th (2005) London bombings. I<i>nternational Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 27 </i>(1) 66-95.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div>
Drury J, Carter H, Cocking C, Ntontis E, Tekin Guven S and Amlôt R (2019) Facilitating Collective Psychosocial Resilience in the Public in Emergencies: Twelve Recommendations Based on the Social Identity Approach. <i>Frontiers in Public Health 7</i>:141. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00141 <br />
<br />
Rahill G, Ganapati E, Clérismé J & Mukherji A (2014) Shelter recovery in urban Haiti after the earthquake: the dual role of social capital. <i>Disasters, 38,</i> (1) 73-93</div>
chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-85832412303514427192020-03-15T05:57:00.001-07:002020-03-22T10:31:27.007-07:00Coronavirus and Social Psychology<div class="gem-c-title gem-c-title--inverse govuk-!-margin-top-8 govuk-!-margin-bottom-0" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 50px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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The Coronavirus has become a global pandemic and taken its hold in most countries, particularly in Europe. As I write this there are now over 150,000 <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">confirmed</a> cases of COVID-19 globally, with 1,140 in the UK, and tragically nearly 6000 deaths (although this figure will no doubt rise in the coming weeks and months). There are also plans to limit large scale gatherings and isolate the over <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51895873">70s</a> in the UK, and many European countries are already in lock-down, with flight and/or entry bans. In my own Higher Education sector, there have been moves to provide more online teaching and the University of <a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/">Liverpool</a> recently announced a ban on face to face classes, with other universities already following this lead. We are clearly facing a global health emergency not seen since the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu">Spanish flu</a> pandemic from 1918-1920, and so we need to take urgent and drastic action. In this blog I will explore why I think the current UK government's response is inadequate (and possibly based on selective and/or flawed interpretations of the scientific evidence), but also provide positive examples of how I think we can get through this crisis. <br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">UK response</span></b><br />
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It has been <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51892402#">reported</a> that many UK scientists are critical of the government's current response to the crisis as it is putting more lives at risk, and nearly 250 have signed an open <a href="http://maths.qmul.ac.uk/~vnicosia/UK_scientists_statement_on_coronavirus_measures.pdf">letter</a> calling for the urgent implementation of stronger social distancing measures. There have also been discussions about concerns of possible 'fatigue' in the public complying with necessary lock-down behaviours, and in a recent Twitter exchange with <a href="https://twitter.com/psychmag/status/1238477896240553984">The Psychologist</a>, myself and others questioned the evidence base for where such concerns have come from. There is also an <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/covidopenletter/home">open letter</a> by behavioural scientists calling for more transparency relating to the evidence used to support this assumption of behavioural fatigue. As a counter-point, a classic study by <a href="http://udspace.udel.edu/bitstream/handle/19716/1325/HC%2010.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">Charles Fritz</a> into disasters and mental health, found that civilian populations were remarkably resilient in the face of open ended threats- particularly the bombing of UK & German cities in WW2, and they never reached a point where they were no longer able to cope with the threat and the wider social fabric fell apart. It does also seem that the UK authorities have been rather selective in their use of evidence from social science, and a recent <a href="https://nous-et-les-autres.blogspot.com/2020/03/social-psychology-of-coronavirus-will.html">blog</a> by Oliver Klein criticized their apparent over-emphasis on nudge theory (an approach introduced when David Cameron was PM). Nudge theory has been criticized by social <a href="https://www.governanceinstitute.edu.au/magma/media/upload/ckeditor/files/Mols-et-al-2015-Why-a-Nudge-is-not-enough.pdf">psychologists</a> (Mols et al 2015) as being ethically dubious (it subtly manipulates people to subconsciously change their behaviour), and also that social identity approaches would be more effective in encouraging compliance with positive health related behaviours by getting people to actively identify with the positive social norms suggested by appealing to the greater collective benefit.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Social distancing</span></b><br />
There is an emerging consensus among the scientific community that stricter social distancing measures (such as those currently in place in Italy and Spain) are urgently needed in the UK- something I wholeheartedly support. On the face of it, social distancing may seem a little counter-intuitive to someone who created this very blog to highlight the social benefits of crowds. However, there are obviously very valid reasons for curtailing mass gatherings in the current pandemic, and many epidemiologists are calling for such measures to be taken to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus (a recent tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/ProfBrianCox/status/1239117671515533313">Brian Cox</a> highlighted the sheer illogicality of cramming people together for hours at US airports in a supposed effort to reduce infection). Previous evidence from the 1918 <a href="https://qz.com/1816060/a-chart-of-the-1918-spanish-flu-shows-why-social-distancing-works/">Spanish flu</a> epidemic shows that social distancing can have a real effect in reducing mortality rates. Therefore, we need to consider how can we encourage a shared sense of identity and hence collective support in the absence of the face to face interactions you would see at mass gatherings. There are concerns about the possible negative psychological impacts of quarantine and self-isolation (see a recent review by Brooks et al in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30460-8/fulltext">The Lancet</a>), and Haslam et al (2018)'s work on the Social Cure also highlights the possible negative effects of social isolation. Therefore, it is vital to emphasize the importance of maintaining social connections when people are self-isolating, and this is where social media and other forms of online support can play a crucial role. For instance, there are already various on-line community groups that have been set up to support people more at risk from COVID-19, such as this <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/491658741529273/">Facebook</a> page for Brighton COVID-19 Mutual Aid, and below is a postcard that is being put through people's doors nationally to offer help.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">'Panic-buying'</span></b></div>
There have been numerous <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51737030">reports</a> of people stockpiling goods especially toilet roll (which to the best of my knowledge won't help mitigate any of the symptoms of Coronavirus!), which has caused much speculation by the media and other <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-why-are-people-panic-buying-and-why-toilet-paper-11952397">commentators</a> that this is irrational 'panic-buying'. I would say that while we clearly need to discourage stockpiling of goods, far from being an example of 'panic', such action is a classic example of a social dilemma, whereby what is in the individual interest (stocking up on goods before they run out) is not in the collective interest, as there aren't enough stocks in the supply chain for everyone to do this. Furthermore, those that are doing the stockpiling (eg those who are young, fit, and have the financial resources to do so) are less likely to be the ones who are most at risk from COVID-19. There are now <a href="https://twitter.com/feistywomankent/status/1239066990309978112">calls</a> for supermarkets to restrict some products, including this <a href="https://twitter.com/PolicingCrowds/status/1238916883954442246">tweet</a> from a retired senior police officer. Thankfully, these calls seem to have been heard, and supermarkets are now <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51883440">asking</a> people to only buy what they need. However, as is depressingly common, the media still insists on reporting these situations as 'panic-buying', thus creating a self-fulfilling prophesy, as happened in the 2012 <a href="https://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.com/2012/03/i-hate-to-say-i-told-you-so.html">fuel crisis</a>, and I made this very point in an interview for <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000fxgs">BBC Radio5 Live</a> (my bit starts 21.40 into it). What the media should be reporting is the equally true (if not as exciting) message that if people only bought what they needed in the short term, then there would be sufficient stocks for everyone. The term 'panic' itself is also deeply problematic, as it doesn't accurately reflect what people actually do in emergencies, and myself and other colleagues have been arguing for years that the term shouldn't be used to describe emergency behaviour- see <a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-33/april-2020/coronavirus-psychological-perspectives">The truth about panic</a> on the British psychological Society's web-page about Coronavirus.<br />
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N<i>otice to shoppers in Brighton superstore</i><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Don't personalize, collectivize!</span></b></div>
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In <a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/coronavirus-psychological-perspectives">The Psychologist</a> online page on Coronavirus, John Drury and Steve Reicher argue that we need to collectivize the response to COVID-19 and this is best done by not appealing to selfish individual interests (<i>will I survive?</i>), and instead focus on broader collective interests (<i>how do we all get through this?</i>). This backs up a recent paper done in collaboration with colleagues involved in researching emergencies on how to advise planners to manage emergencies effectively (Drury et al, 2019). One of the over-arching recommendations was that cooperation is more likely when people feel a shared sense of threat, and so we need to encourage people to develop a common identity in response to this threat (eg encourage the idea that we're all in this together and we need to cooperate to come through it effectively). There is historical precedent for this, and a recent article by <a href="https://medium.com/@Chris_Creegan/how-do-we-survive-a-plague-together-b61feaccb86c">Chris Creegan</a> highlights the organisation and collective solidarity that emerged from the LGBTQ community in response to the AIDS virus, and how such solidarity is crucial in the current crisis;<br />
'<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: , "georgia" , "cambria" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">The key to all this — and the clue to how we survive a plague now — was community activism. However governments act, and they must, our way through this lies with all of us — in civil society. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: , "georgia" , "cambria" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">Whatever the necessity of ‘social distancing’ our need for social connection has been brought into the sharpest relief imaginable. We will get through this together.</span></i><br />
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So, I would like to end with a more positive message that I believe we can get through this crisis if we work together and don't compete with each other. I do not in any way want to downplay the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak, and I know that people will be fearful of losing loved ones (I am very concerned about my own family members who are in the high risk demographic groups). However, I think it is also worth remembering that most people (even those in high risk groups) will either not contract COVID-19, or make a full recovery, and that we will all get through this if we pull together. However, we do need to act collectively to overcome this crisis, as that will result in a much more effective response than if we act in more individual ways.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">References:</span></b></div>
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Drury, J., Carter, H., Cocking, C., Ntontis, E., Tekin Guven, S., & Amlôt, R. (2019). <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00141/full">Facilitating collective psychosocial resilience in the public in emergencies: Twelve recommendations based on the social identity approach</a>. <i>Frontiers in Public Health</i>, 7 (141) doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00141<br />
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Haslam C, Jetten J, Cruwys C, Dingle GD, Haslam SA. (2018).The New Psychology of Health: Unlocking the Social Cure. London: Routledge </div>
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Mols F, Mols S. Haslam A, Jetten J & Steffens N (2015) Why a nudge is not enough: A social identity critique of governance by stealth. <i>European Journal of Political Research</i> 54: 81–98, 2015<br />
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-47437276120393788392018-01-14T03:22:00.001-08:002021-04-20T03:30:11.475-07:00Hawaii missile alert & 'panic'The residents of Hawaii recently suffered a nasty shock when human error resulted in an emergency text (issued via a <a href="https://apnews.com/179e1a9dc23d43b2996ac7093897fa77/Hawaii-officials-mistakenly-warn-of-inbound-missile">push alert</a> that is sent out to to all mobile phones in the vicinity to warn the public of emergencies), warning them of a missile attack that went out at 08:07 local time (18:07 GMT). The mistake was corrected via email 18 minutes later but there was no follow-up mobile text for 38 minutes, which was how most saw the initial warning, (and how many people are going to check their e-mails in such situations anyway?!), causing an understandable degree of fear and anxiety as locals believed that a missile attack was imminent.<br />
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<i>How the message appeared on mobile phones</i></div>
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Thankfully, no such missile attack happened, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are now some pretty hurried investigations going on into how such an embarrassing mistake happened (apparently an official pressed the wrong button during a shift change!). As is common with incidents such as these, the mainstream media have gone overboard in their coverage of the incident, with the word 'panic' yet again being used liberally to describe how people responded (here are some examples are from the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42677604">BBC</a> and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/13/hawaii-cell-phone-users-hit-with-false-alarm-of-a-ballistic-missile-heading-toward-the-island.html">CNBC</a>). However, I would argue, as I have done in the research that I have done on previous mass emergencies (see references below) that people's behaviour during this event were far from the 'panicked' responses that are often assumed, and labeling them as such could have negative long-term consequences.<br />
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It's interesting that accounts on social media by people who were in Hawaii at the time tend to be much more nuanced than the mainstream media, and while it is clear that people were fearful and anxious (who wouldn't be in such a situation?), this didn't mean that they were 'panicking' (which implies selfish and/or irrational behaviour). So for example, <a href="https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw">southpaw</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/952250802592038912">tweeted</a>;<br />
<i><b>The people I was with were pretty stoical. Nervous, but not panicked. The loved ones they were talking with and FaceTiming, though, were often really stressed and terrified</b></i><br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/melbournecoal">Sydney Ember</a> wrote in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/us/hawaii-missile.html?smid=tw-share">NY Times</a> wrote that while people were clearly fearful & upset, there was also co-operation, and people tried to contact loved ones;<br />
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<i><b><i><b>At Konawaena High School on the Island of Hawaii, where a high school wrestling championship was taking place, school officials, more accustomed to alerts of high surf or tsunamis, moved people to the center of the gym as they tried to figure out how to take shelter from a missile.</b></i></b></i></div>
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“Everyone cooperated,” said Kellye Krug, the athletic director at the school. “Once they were gathered, we let them use cellphones to reach loved ones. There were a couple of kids who were emotional, the coaches were right there to console kids. After the retraction was issued, we gave kids time to reach out again.”</b></i><br />
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It's also worth bearing in mind that in the current context of heightened tensions in the Korean peninsular, and that Hawaii is only 20 minutes away from any missile launch by North Korea, such a text alert could be considered as a credible threat (especially because it wasn't corrected for over half an hour). Therefore, I would say that far from being a 'panicked' response, trying to contact your loved ones and seeking shelter, when you've just had a text alert telling you to do just that, is probably the most sensible and logical thing to do in that situation. Furthermore, in my last blog on a similar incident at Oxford Circus <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/crowd-responses-to-oxford-circus.html">Oxford Circus</a> tube station in London in Nov 2017 (when false rumours of a terrorist attack sparked a mass evacuation), myself and others pointed out that official government advice during emergencies is to <a href="http://www.securitydrivers.co.uk/file-manager/Pages/Blog/run-hide-tell.jpg">Run, Hide, Tell</a>, so it's rather unfair to describe it as 'panic' when people do just that!</div>
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I think how this incident unfolded and was reported also illustrates a couple of broader points where there could be serious long-term consequences. Firstly, my issue with the mis-use of the term 'panic' isn't simple word-play, as it implies that people over-reacted, and so in future incidents, people may be less likely to follow advice for fear of social ridicule from others (and/or the media) for 'panicking'. Secondly, the fact that it took over 30 minutes to correct the false text message, means that if a real alert is sent out in future, people could assume that it is another mistake and may delay taking vital precautionary action until it is too late. So, to counter the numerous irrational narratives we have seen about this incident, I would like to finish with a more positive <i><a href="https://twitter.com/Jdlazo/status/952268574512443397">tweet</a></i> from Jennifer Lazo, an Emergency Manager in the Bay Area, California;<br />
<i><b>To the people in Hawaii who read the alert and took action- finding shelter, getting kids in a safe spot, telling their neighbors about the alert- Thank you. Don't let anyone tell you that you overreacted. Your response could have saved lives</b></i><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">References:</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">Cocking C. (2013) Crowd flight during collective disorder- a momentary lapse of reason?</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;"> Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling,</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">10 (2) p.219-36. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jip.1389/abstract" style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration-line: none;">DOI:10.1002/jip.1389</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><span style="line-height: 20px; text-indent: -28.8px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><span style="line-height: 20px; text-indent: -28.8px;">Drury, J. and Cocking, C. (2007). <i>The mass psychology of disasters and emergency evacuations: A research report and implications for practice</i>. </span><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf" style="color: #6699cc; line-height: 20px; text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: -28.8px;">http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf</a> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Drury, J., Cocking, C., & Reicher, S. (2009a). Every one for themselves? Understanding how crowd solidarity can arise in an emergency: An interview study of disaster survivors. <i>British Journal of Social Psychology</i> 48.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Drury, J., Cocking, C., Reicher, S. (2009b). The nature of collective ‘resilience’: Survivor reactions to the July 7th (2005) London bombings. </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">27 (1) 66-95.</span></div>
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-58719527065604151502017-11-26T03:37:00.001-08:002018-07-30T08:36:07.657-07:00Crowd responses to Oxford Circus incident<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Londoners may well be breathing a collective sigh of relief after the evacuation of Oxford Circus tube station and subsequent lock-down of shops on Oxford Street, was unjustified because the feared terrorist attack did not materialize. However, as with most coverage of such incidents, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42120534">media</a> reports have been peppered with the use of irrationalist terms (such as 'panic' & 'stampede'), and it has resulted in a fair degree of media requests for crowd psychologists to do interviews (the ones I know of are listed below). Regular readers of this blog will no doubt be familiar that myself and others who work in the field of crowd safety management are highly critical of the use of such terms to describe crowd emergency behaviour & I regularly critique coverage of such emergencies (most recently, the failed bomb attack at <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/parsons-green-tube-attack.html">Parsons Green</a> tube station, this September). This time the media are particularly keen on using these terms, because there wasn't actually a 'real' emergency, and so this presumably confirms that people were over-reacting and hence 'panicking'. However, I will argue in this blog that it's very easy to write off crowd responses as 'panic' without properly examining the actual behaviors of those involved, or the social context in which they are operating.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will start with the general point that it's misleading to describe incidents such as these as 'panic', because it implies irrational behaviour, and that if there are any casualties, it is the fault of those who 'panicked'. Furthermore, one could say that it is a perfectly logical act for people to flee what they believe is a potentially life-threatening incident. Ironically, under-reaction in emergencies (especially fires) can be a worse problem, as if people delay action to escape possible danger, this could decrease their chances of a successful evacuation. In his blog, <a href="http://drury-sussex-the-crowd.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/a-10-point-listicle-on-journalist.html">John Drury</a> provides a 10 point guide for journalists, and he highlights the irony that government <a href="http://www.securitydrivers.co.uk/file-manager/Pages/Blog/run-hide-tell.jpg">advice</a> during terrorist incidents is to 'Run, Hide, Tell', but when people do follow this advice, the media call it 'panic'! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With relation to specifically happened at Oxford Circus, the media seem keener than usual to describe it as 'panic' because it turned out not to be a terrorist attack. However, the people involved in this incident would not have had the hindsight of external observers & so may not have known the apparent trigger for the incident (a fight on the platform), so fleeing when they saw a crowd surge towards them (rather than waiting to see what the threat is) may have been the most sensible thing to do given the information they had available at the time. A similar incident happened at Los Angeles (LAX) airport in August 2016 after people mistakenly believed that there had been gunshots and fled the airport terminal. I <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/panic-at-us-airports.html">argued</a> at the time that considering the general fear in the US of terrorist attacks at airports post 9/11, acting on such an assumption should not be seen as 'irrational', but normative behavior within a social context. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Much has also been made of the role of rumours circulating on social media about this incident, and the singer songwriter Olly Murs got into a public spat with Piers Morgan after <a href="https://twitter.com/ollyofficial/status/934104483537326080">tweeting</a> to his 7.83 million followers on Twitter that there had been gunshots in Selfridges. I would certainly advocate that the information disseminated in emergencies should be as accurate as possible, and that people with large numbers of followers on social media need to be careful with what they put in the public domain. However, I feel that it is a little unfair when people external to the event criticize those caught up in it for spreading inaccurate information, as they may have the hindsight that those within in it do not. It is also important to bear in mind that for rumours to spread in such incidents, they still have to be credible to be believed and acted upon by crowd members. One could say in the current context of fear of terrorist attacks in London post Westminster/ London Bridge, Parsons Green etc, that rumours of another attack could be considered a credible threat, especially since the authorities took the incident seriously enough to dispatch armed police to the scene. However, other less credible rumours (e.g. that Godzilla was charging up Oxford Street!) may not have been so readily believed. The crucial thing is for the authorities to be as open & honest as possible with the information they provide, so that people don't feel such a need to seek information about the incident from other sources. A common myth about emergencies is that if people become aware of a possible threat, then they will be come too fearful to act rationally and will therefore 'panic'. However, there is almost no <a href="http://www.iafss.org/publications/fss/3/843">evidence</a> to support this idea, and withholding information in emergencies could even result in people delaying action to keep themselves safe, and so could ironically increase the danger. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Finally, even when crowd flight does occur, during such incidents, it's wrong to describe them as a 'stampede' because this implies unthinking animalistic behaviour. The research that I have done on crowd flight (Cocking, 2013) has found that people still tend to behave cooperatively when they flee (e.g. picking up others that fall over, waiting for friends/loved ones etc). This seems to be supported by <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/viral/witnesses-describe-panic-on-londons-oxford-street/vi-BBFBjZn">footage</a> of people fleeing the incident, as they don't appear to be pushing others as they get away, and many are not even running at full speed, but walking quickly, pausing and/or turning round to see what is going on etc. While there do appear to have been some casualties (16 hurt and 2 hospitalized) during the evacuation, given the likely number of people that would have been in the vicinity at 16.30 on a Friday four weeks before Christmas, this would appear to be a relatively small number, and injuries in crowd flight are usually because of crowd density or people accidentally falling over, not because they are deliberately pushing others over. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, to conclude, what we saw in Oxford Street this Friday, was not 'panic', and describing it as such is not only inaccurate, but also hinders detailed exploration of how we can safely manage such incidents in future. </span></div>
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<b>Media appearances by myself & John Drury:</b></div>
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Radio London <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05l596d">Drivetime</a> show 24/11 (interview from 2.48.00)<br />
BBC news channel 25/11 at 12.10 (clip can be accessed via <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/307e5yksd4xx5hc/BBC_News_Channel-2017-11-25_12-11-28.mp4?dl=0">DropBox</a>)<br />
John Drury on <a href="http://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/ian-payne/what-should-you-do-in-a-terror-attack-lbc-asked-an/">LBC</a>, 16.00 25/11<br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09fytgx">Radio5 Live</a>, 25/11. (interview from 05.50)<br />
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<b>References:</b><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">Cocking C. (2013) Crowd flight during collective disorder- a momentary lapse of reason?</span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;"> Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling,</i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">10 (2) p.219-36. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jip.1389/abstract" style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration-line: none;">DOI:10.1002/jip.1389</a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><span style="line-height: 20px; text-indent: -28.8px;">Drury, J. and Cocking, C. (2007). <i>The mass psychology of disasters and emergency evacuations: A research report and implications for practice</i>. </span><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf" style="color: #6699cc; line-height: 20px; text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: -28.8px;">http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf</a> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Drury, J., Cocking, C., & Reicher, S. (2009a). Every one for themselves? Understanding how crowd solidarity can arise in an emergency: An interview study of disaster survivors. <i>British Journal of Social Psychology</i> 48.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Drury, J., Cocking, C., Reicher, S. (2009b). The nature of collective ‘resilience’: Survivor reactions to the July 7th (2005) London bombings. </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">27 (1) 66-95.</span></div>
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-69674679902981939332017-09-16T03:35:00.001-07:002017-09-16T03:41:24.843-07:00Parsons Green Tube attackLondon saw another apparent terrorist attack on Friday 15th September- this time at Parsons Green Tube station in South West London, with 29 people injured in what must have been a horrifying experience for those affected. Mercifully though, it seems that the device failed to detonate fully, and so the casualties could have been much higher, with many fatalities had it exploded as intended, (given that the bomb went off on a packed tube train that can hold nearly 900 passengers during rush hour). The timing of the explosion was also fortunate, because it happened while the train was still above ground, and had it detonated fully while in a tunnel, the force of the explosion on the train and its occupants would have been much greater. So, while I wouldn't want to downplay the shock and terror that those on the train may have experienced, it looks like this incident could have been much worse.<br />
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<b>'Stampede' or logical flight?</b><br />
As with such incidents there has been blanket media coverage (including an <a href="https://myshare.app.box.com/s/1r9t37mfd7nk61f6ah9ro0bszxx7hono">interview</a> I did for the BBC news channel on Friday evening), with terms such as 'panic' and 'stampede' being used liberally in both media and eye-witness accounts. For instance, BBC <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41277938">coverage</a> describes a 'stampede' as people evacuated down the stairs. Those familiar with this <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/shanghai-crowd-crush-tragedy.html">blog </a>will be aware that those of us who work in the field of emergency planning and response are critical of such terms, as they don't usually match up with detailed examination of what actually happens, but also because they imply that people in crowds behave selfishly and/or & irrationally. In the interview I did for BBC news, I made the point that it's not 'panic' to flee a potentially life-threatening risk, and in the current context (that this is the 5th major incident of its kind in Britain this year), it is not surprising that people rapidly fled as soon as it became apparent that there was an explosive device on the train. Previous research I have done (Cocking, 2013) has found that while instinctive crowd flight can happen (e.g. people run as soon as they see a crowd surging towards them), it is usually brief and people still co-operate with others during such flight, so the idea that people who fall over are then deliberately trampled by others as they flee is largely a myth.<br />
However, there are also specific physical aspects of the incident at Parsons Green that need further exploration, as otherwise it is easy to slip into using irrationalist narratives if one does not examine why certain things happened. So, interviews with eyewitnesses include reports of people falling over each other as they evacuated down the stairs off the platform at Parsons Green, and it is possible that some injuries occurred this way (although we do not yet know how many and most of the 29 casualties appear to have been burns from the explosion). However, there are descriptions of people helping each other within the crush, and also mobile phone footage that people took of the bomb on train, so not everybody fled, and some people stayed on the platform. What happened as people ran down the stairs seems to be a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/03/hajj-crush-how-crowd-disasters-happen-and-how-they-can-be-avoided">crowd collapse</a>, whereby a domino effect can happen in densely packed crowds (eg if someone falls over, then the physical pressure on those behind them means that they are forced over into the space created). This is what happened in the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/09/a795909.shtml">Bethnal Green</a> tube station tragedy in 1943 (when 173 people died during a crowd crush as they ran down the station steps to escape an air raid), because someone fell over and others tumbled over them, creating a crowd collapse.<br />
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The incident on Friday could also have been exacerbated by some specific physical factors relating to where it happened. So, for instance, Parsons Green is quite an old Victorian station on the District Line (it was built in 1880 before the deeper tunnels of the London Underground were created), and so many of its stations are above ground (see photo below). Therefore, people had to evacuate downwards to get out of the station (rather than upwards, had they been at a station in a tunnel), and the effects of anyone falling over in such a downward fleeing crowd would have been made worse by the effect of gravity. Secondly, it seems from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41290951">reports</a> that the device went off towards the rear of the train, and the exit at Parsons Green is towards the front of the train. So when people evacuated, most would have probably surged towards this available exit at the end of the platform, meaning the crowd surge was denser than had there been more than one obvious way to evacuate (it seems that some people evacuated along the tracks, but much less than those that fled towards the exit at the end of the platform). <br />
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<img alt="Emma Stevie" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/E129/production/_97814675_mediaitem97814674.jpg" /><br />
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<i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Tube train above ground at Parsons Green station</b></i></div>
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<b>Conclusion:</b><br />
Previous work I have done with John Drury into mass emergencies, including 7/7 (see references below), found that people often behave much more resiliently than is expected of them, and I think yesterday's incident at Parsons Green was no exception. Yes, there were factors during the crowd evacuation that we need to consider if we are going to help ensure that future incidents are managed safely. However, I would argue that these are usually physical and/or logistical aspects of the space in which the evacuation happens (rather than any inherent problems with the way that those affected behave en masse), and using irrationalist terms such as 'panic' or 'stampede' do not help us advance our crowd safety management approaches. Finally, it is also worth bearing in the mind the general sense of community spirit, spontaneous acts of co-operation and generosity shown by others that happens after such incidents. For instance, a <a href="https://twitter.com/katysdunn/status/908600334251167744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Flive%2Fuk-england-london-41218382">local resident </a>in Parsons Green offered to put the kettle on for anyone affected, and a local Pizza company gave out free pizza and water to members of the emergency services on the scene (see photo). I think these are good examples of how adverse events can help bring communities together, and not divide them (as is often the intention behind the perpetrators), and we should remember this positive message in the aftermath of such incidents. <br />
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<img alt="Pizzas and water being handed out" src="https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/12463/production/_97815847_c914230f-b612-4727-947d-10ac799d3f13.jpg" /></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><i>Stall set up by local Pizza company to support emergency services</i></b></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">References:</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><span style="line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">Cocking C. (2013) Crowd flight during collective disorder- a momentary lapse of reason?</span><i style="line-height: 22px; text-align: center;"> Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling,</i><span style="line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">10 (2) p.219-36. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jip.1389/abstract" style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration-line: none;">DOI:10.1002/jip.1389</a></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><span style="line-height: 20px; text-indent: -28.8px;">Drury, J. and Cocking, C. (2007). The mass psychology of disasters and emergency evacuations: A research report and implications for practice.</span><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf" style="color: #6699cc; line-height: 20px; text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: -28.8px;">http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Drury, J., Cocking, C., & Reicher, S. (2009a). Every one for themselves? Understanding how crowd solidarity can arise in an emergency: An interview study of disaster survivors. British Journal of Social Psychology 48.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Drury, J., Cocking, C., Reicher, S. (2009b). The nature of collective ‘resilience’: Survivor reactions to the July 7th (2005) London bombings. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 27 (1) 66-95.</span></div>
chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-9870773729517368052017-08-28T14:24:00.000-07:002018-01-26T13:20:28.347-08:00Notting Hill Carnival & collective supportI was at the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41072954">Notting Hill Carnival </a>today, which was held this year in the shadow of the Grenfell Tower <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40294993">fire</a> tragedy in June 2017. For those unfamiliar with the geography of Notting Hill, this is not mere hyperbole, and from where I watched the carnival go by on Ladbroke Grove, the gutted Tower block was clearly visible to carnival goers. This made it a more sombre and reflective event than previous carnivals I have experienced (I grew up in West London & so have been a frequent visitor to the Carnival over the years), but from what I saw, the collective support offered by the local community and carnival goers shows how people can come together to support each other after such tragedies.<br />
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Locals had asked that visitors to the carnival didn't take photographs of the Tower and to respect people's privacy around the estate where Grenfell Tower is. Therefore, my focus in this post is on examples of collective support afterwards, rather than the tragedy itself & I have copied below some of my photos that I think are good examples of such collective support. In a previous <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/shoreham-disaster-memorial-service.html">post</a> I looked at how the local community came together to support each other after the Shoreham air disaster in 2015, and how a nearby bridge became a focus of messages of support. A similar thing has happened in the area close to Grenfell Tower (I also noticed this on a previous visit to a local church in July), and a popular image of Grenfell as a tube logo has also emerged,with people wearing T-shirts with this logo in solidarity at today's carnival.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZpOXGGPLXZ31V5anoIen9uJ1C4v2jfBNUiUmXWW-YGhKh6P4Te8w-IAMdwXRDpk_v93Bi1Gl4-GrR4OHuy5ty8K3CRQg88be3bLjNKKZhnFg8Q2Pbp-dGNHeoH39PW1zickqB8gNUF0/s1600/Grenfell+tube+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZpOXGGPLXZ31V5anoIen9uJ1C4v2jfBNUiUmXWW-YGhKh6P4Te8w-IAMdwXRDpk_v93Bi1Gl4-GrR4OHuy5ty8K3CRQg88be3bLjNKKZhnFg8Q2Pbp-dGNHeoH39PW1zickqB8gNUF0/s400/Grenfell+tube+logo.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<i>Grenfell tube logo </i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPy3Da8jZ54bT2XA9jItG2eKDmdnS5s5XuN2nCFTxQ5Y0ZsBqKaT54Zodh6cLF_ZLwHVyiQndb3LQbZOnjtWV29pE1yRBUDLQ54Y_w6EARujyQz4ovrfhr_-WyaCAz-lbloF3d8ne8yok/s1600/justice+fro+Grenfell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPy3Da8jZ54bT2XA9jItG2eKDmdnS5s5XuN2nCFTxQ5Y0ZsBqKaT54Zodh6cLF_ZLwHVyiQndb3LQbZOnjtWV29pE1yRBUDLQ54Y_w6EARujyQz4ovrfhr_-WyaCAz-lbloF3d8ne8yok/s320/justice+fro+Grenfell.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Messages of support on Ladbroke Grove </i></div>
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I also noticed some interesting dynamics in the crowd behaviour at the carnival. For instance, the area closest to Grenfell Tower was designated as a quiet zone for reflection, and at 15.00 on both carnival days, there was a planned minute's silence. I did wonder beforehand how easy it would be to organise a minute's silence in such a large carnival crowd, but in the area where I was standing, word went around from about 14.50 onward that there was going to be a minute's silence. The crowd pretty much universally respected this & fell silent along with the emergency services personnel who were stationed there. The floats also fell silent when they passed the quite zone, and some had messages of support along the side The few people that didn't realize what was going on were told by others to be quiet & quickly did so. Once the minute was over, there was a spontaneous round of applause and yellow balloons were set off from local flats. This was quite a powerful experience to be part of and I felt this was a good example of the potential strength of unity that crowds can have in showing positive emotion & collective solidarity. This all fits with previous work I have done with John Drury on community resilience after disasters, where we found that people can come together and support each other much better than is often expected of them (see references below).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRa6_5vfpGPf0JlK0U14zllLWMWRFGU-Zhh9_k7lS4HMNqIZVhztC7sKodT459e6Dt59S0nY0ZnoGRDz5QXDnH_If_Bi4RWlxTK4UFCoC7m2rEBqgEht9P9PSHw7kTUqQju9kRvpPeiss/s1600/21106823_1651949434876872_1945814819409030463_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRa6_5vfpGPf0JlK0U14zllLWMWRFGU-Zhh9_k7lS4HMNqIZVhztC7sKodT459e6Dt59S0nY0ZnoGRDz5QXDnH_If_Bi4RWlxTK4UFCoC7m2rEBqgEht9P9PSHw7kTUqQju9kRvpPeiss/s640/21106823_1651949434876872_1945814819409030463_n.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<i>Quiet zone on Ladbroke Grove</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixcKwDzUPpbDA2fJdtcpubs2sZS0IRphoZVsyYa2sjvpMgusoixjxoq8lT-LymMiIZOhem_Rdm2am_w_FWMkDxETE69amxp8Ry45WxNX6-CSLZwM1rAU71Oq91iF62ye4QeamOIHF3mRw/s1600/1+minute+silnece.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixcKwDzUPpbDA2fJdtcpubs2sZS0IRphoZVsyYa2sjvpMgusoixjxoq8lT-LymMiIZOhem_Rdm2am_w_FWMkDxETE69amxp8Ry45WxNX6-CSLZwM1rAU71Oq91iF62ye4QeamOIHF3mRw/s640/1+minute+silnece.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<i>Emergency services observing 1 minute silence</i></div>
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<b>Conclusion:</b><br />
The Grenfell story is far from over and the survivors & victim's families will need ongoing material and emotional support in their fight for answers and justice (the <a href="https://beta.redcross.org.uk/appeal/london-fire-relief-fund?c_name=London%20Fire%20Relief%20Fund&c_source=google&c_medium=cpc&c_creative=Donate%20Landing_Need_DN&c_code=154745&adg=Donate&kw=grenfell%20tower%20donate&approachcode=154745_googlePADLondonFireDonate_NeedDN&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIppzSh-j61QIVz7ftCh0o1ATVEAAYASAAEgJK9PD_BwE">Red Cross</a> are taking donations & support for those affected can be accessed <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/grenfell-tower-fire-june-2017-support-for-people-affected">here</a>). I also wouldn't want to make any claims that such a journey will be easy or without setbacks. However, I hope that the examples of collective and community support that I saw at the Notting Hill carnival today, could help form a vital part of the collective healing process that is so desperately needed in this area of West London.<br />
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<i>Messages of solidarity on a float</i></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-indent: -14.2pt;">References:</b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Cocking, C (2013) Collective resilience versus collective vulnerability after disasters- a Social Psychological perspective. In R. Arora (ed.) <i>Disaster Management: A Medical Perspective. </i>CABI: Oxford, UK.<i></i></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://bookshop.cabi.org/?page=2633&pid=2433&site=191" style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">http://bookshop.cabi.org/?page=2633&pid=2433&site=191</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">Cocking,</span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; text-indent: -14.2pt;"> C (2016</span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">)</span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; text-indent: -14.2pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">‘Collective Resilience and</span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
social support in the</span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;"> face</span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: 0.05pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; text-indent: -14.2pt;">of</span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; text-indent: -14.2pt;">adversity-</span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: 0.05pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">evidence
from</span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; text-indent: -14.2pt;"> Social </span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">Psychology’</span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; text-indent: -14.2pt;">in </span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">Kumar,</span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
U </span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">(ed.) </span><span style="font-size: 14.85px; text-indent: -14.2pt;">'Routledge International
Handbook of Psychosocial Resilience'. Routledge, Taylor & Francis: UK.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Drury, J. (2012). Collective resilience in mass emergencies and disasters: a social identity model. In: Jetten, J., Haslam, C. and Haslam, S.A. (eds) <i>The Social Cure: Identity, Health and Well-being</i>. Psychology Press, Hove, UK.</span></div>
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-8500237383569340472017-06-04T02:17:00.000-07:002017-06-04T09:51:19.840-07:00London Bridge attack & crowd responsesBritain is waking up to the news that London has suffered another <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40146916">attack </a>that has so far seen 7 people killed and nearly 50 hospitalized (a casualty hotline has been set up for those worried about loved ones- 0800 096 1233). Shortly after 22.00 on Saturday 3rd June, a van mounted the pavement on London Bridge, and began mowing down pedestrians. Then, three men got out and began attacking people with knives in the nearby Borough market on the Southern end of London Bridge until they were shot by armed Police. This was clearly a horrific attack, and my thoughts are with all those affected. I am familiar with the area, (it is a popular place for commuters to stop for a drink before travelling onwards from London Bridge railway station), and the thought of innocent bystanders being targeted at random while they were enjoying a Saturday night out, is particularly worrying. However, as horrific as this attack surely is, there is also evidence that shows how events such as these can see a co-operative spirit emerge. <br />
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<b>Crowd flight?</b><br />
This low-tech attack appears to be the third of its kind seen in London in recent years (the first being the murder of <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/bystander-intervention-after-lee-rigby.html">Lee Rigby</a> in 2013, and in March 2017 the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39365569">Westminster Bridge</a> attack), where a vehicle is used to attack pedestrians. While such incidents are truly terrifying for those affected, closer inspection of events usually shows that describing them as 'mass panic' rarely matches with the available evidence. So, for instance, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-40147628/people-flee-scene-near-london-bridge">footage</a> of people leaving the scene last night shows an orderly evacuation, where they are evacuating with a degree of haste, but this is far from headlong flight (some people are not even running), and I can see no evidence of selfish behaviour (such as pushing others) or people falling over in the rush. This fits with crowd responses to the truck attack in <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/crowd-responses-to-nice-attack.html">Nice</a> in July 2016, and with research that I have done (Cocking 2013a) into crowd flight. <br />
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<b>Bystander responses:</b><br />
Reports are coming in of the speed and efficiency of the response by the emergency services, which by all accounts was amazingly quick. For instance, the London Ambulance Service <a href="http://www.londonambulance.nhs.uk/news/news_releases_and_statements/statement_on_the_incident_at_l.aspx">reports</a> that they were on the scene within 6 minutes, and deployed over 80 medics to help the injured. The attackers were also shot dead within 8 minutes of the start of the incident. However, as with such events, there is always a delay between the incident beginning and the emergency services deploying on the scene (no response can ever be instantaneous), and so in the minutes (or even seconds) before they arrive, we often see heroic acts by bystanders as well. So for instance, in an <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-40147519/london-attack-they-were-running-and-stabbing-everyone">interview</a> with an eye-witness, he describes his efforts to warn people what was happening and how he also intervened by throwing things at the attackers. I have also heard reports on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live">Radio5 Live</a> that people were directing Police to where the attackers were in Borough market, and an eye-witness talked about how people reacted; '<i>everyone seemed to adapt to it very quickly and respond to it as it happened'</i>. On a broader level, in the aftermath of the attack, the hashtag <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/04/sofaforlondon-residents-open-their-doors-in-wake-of-london-bridge-attack?CMP=twt_gu">#sofaforLondon</a> appeared on social media, as Londoners began offering a space to stay for anyone unable to get home after the attack. People are also using the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/the-attack-in-london-united-kingdom-jun03-2017/home/">Facebook</a> safety check service to reassure others that they are OK.<br />
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I believe that all these examples illustrate well the concept of collective resilience, something that emerged from research I did with John Drury (see references below) into mass emergencies, whereby spontaneous co-operation quickly emerges among those affected, and the idea that people will be too shocked or 'panicked' to help each other just isn't backed up by what happens on the ground. So, bystanders in emergencies could actually be seen as a form of 'zero-responders' (Cocking 2013b) that could help strengthen the official response to such incidents. I hope that this can help show that a positive aspect of our shared humanity can emerge from such awful attacks, as people come together to help others in times of need. <br />
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<i>Responders tend to the injured </i></div>
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<b>References:</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cocking C. (2013a). Crowd flight during collective disorder- a momentary lapse of reason? Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling. 10 (2) p.219-36.<br /><br />Cocking, C. (2013b). The role of "zero-responders" during 7/7: Implications for the Emergency Services. International Journal of the Emergency Services, 2 (2) 79-93.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; text-indent: 0px;">Drury, J. and Cocking, C. (2007). The mass psychology of disasters and emergency evacuations: A research report and implications for practice. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; text-indent: 0px;"><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf">http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf</a> </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; text-indent: 0px;">Drury, J., Cocking, C., & Reicher, S. (2009a). Every one for themselves? Understanding how crowd solidarity can arise in an emergency: An interview study of disaster survivors. British Journal of Social Psychology 48.<br /><br />Drury, J., Cocking, C., Reicher, S. (2009b). The nature of collective ‘resilience’: Survivor reactions to the July 7th (2005) London bombings. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 27 (1) 66-95.</span><br />
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-6379297540182519072017-05-24T00:21:00.001-07:002017-05-25T00:01:13.047-07:00Manchester attack and crowd resilienceThe city of Manchester and the whole of the UK are reeling in shock in the aftermath of the murderous attack on the Manchester Arena after the Ariana Grande concert on 22/4/17, with 22 confirmed dead and 59 injured. As I write this, the UK terrorist threat level has been raised to its highest level, '<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40023488">critical</a>' (meaning another attack may be imminent), and soldiers have been ordered to support the Police on the streets to free up more armed officers. It is difficult to find the words to describe such a horrific attack that was clearly designed to be as shocking as possible and divide communities in its wake. I will show in this blog how I feel that such dark events can bring people closer together, both during the incident and in its aftermath. As is common with media coverage of such incidents, the words 'panic' and 'stampede' are freely used to describe the crowd response, suggesting that the people affected behave irrationally. However, work that myself and colleagues have done in this area has found that the reality is often more complex, with people behaving in ordered ways that are governed by the context in which they find themselves.<br />
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<b>'Stampedes?'</b><br />
From what I have seen of crowd responses in the Manchester Arena, I think it is problematic to simply describe people's behaviour as a 'stampede' (something I have looked at in previous <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/euro-2016-disorder-in-marseille.html">blogs</a> on crowd flight). It appears that as the concert was finishing, a lone suicide bomber walked into the foyer and detonated his device. The initial response to the blast appears to have been an eerie silence, then people began screaming once they realised what had happened, and then they fled rapidly from the venue. Mobile phone footage from inside the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-40003942/concertgoers-flee-manchester-arena-after-explosion">venue</a> and the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-40008100/manchester-arena-panic-inside-train-station">train station</a> shows the crowd flight after the blast, and while you can see a degree of urgency amongst people leaving, there's no evidence of people behaving selfishly. Research I have done into crowd flight (Cocking, 2013) has shown that it is misleading to describe such incidents as a 'stampede' because it implies that people are behaving like animals with no consideration for their fellow human beings. Instead, people tend to help each other out when they are able, and I have not yet seen any footage of people behaving selfishly (eg pushing people or trampling over others). I'm mindful that it is possible that fear in a crowd composed largely of young people could be greater than in a crowd of adults (which is where I have done most of my research), but I have not yet seen any evidence that any such increased fear significantly increases incidences of selfish behaviour.<br />
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<b>'Panic'?</b><br />
'Panic' is another word that is commonly used to describe such incidents, both by the media and in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-40023293/manchester-attack-young-ariana-grande-fans-describe-scene-inside">eye-witness accounts</a> of the incident. Now, I'm not claiming that this incident was anything other than utterly horrific and terrifying for those involved, especially because there were many young people and children at the venue (and for some it was possibly their first gig). However, to describe such events as 'panic' doesn't fully explain the full complexity of what goes on, and like the term 'stampede' it implies that people are behaving irrationally and/or selfishly, when the evidence suggests otherwise. So, within the incident, I heard reports of people grabbing their relatives and running, forming human chains to help wheelchair users, and worried parents going against the crowd flow to enter the venue to find their children. There is also a moving interview on <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/i-pray-to-god-extremists-dont-try-to-make-capital-out-of-it">Channel 4 news</a> where two parents describe how they looked after an injured child before they had found their own children. I would say that all of these examples are the opposite of 'panicked' behaviour, and instead show how people co-operate with each other (often to help complete strangers) in emergencies. <br />
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<i>Bystanders help the injured </i></div>
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<b>Collective Solidarity:</b><br />
Much has been made of how people have come together in the aftermath of this tragedy, and I have heard journalists and politicians refer to the 'spirit of Manchester' and how such a tragedy will bring people together. This fits with the the work I have done with John Drury that shows a sense of collective resilience can emerge from such incidents. So, for instance, I saw reports of people giving out water to victims, queuing up to donate blood, taxi drivers not charging for fares, people organizing lifts to get fans back to Liverpool, and one <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/23/bystander-leads-50-teens-safety-aftermath-manchester-arena-bombing/">bystander</a> leading 50 children to safety and arranging for a local hotel to put up those who couldn't get home. This collective solidarity also continued after the immediate attack, with a <a href="https://twitter.com/david_conn/status/867071069814960129/photo/1">vigil </a>in Manchester's Albert Square the day after the incident, and a planned rally by the far-right <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2017/05/23/mancunians-show-real-manchester-spirit-as-they-shout-down-edl-protesters-6655982/">English Defence League</a> (EDL) in the Arndale Centre was shouted down by Mancuniams. Now I accept that there could be a degree of political and media rhetoric here, (as a clear aim of such terrorist attacks is to divide communities), but the numerous examples of people spontaneously showing such collective solidarity, leads me to conclude that this is a real phenomenon above and beyond any journalistic hyperbole.<br />
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<img alt="Mancunians show real Manchester spirit as they shout down EDL protesters" src="https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/dmvidpics-2017-05-23-at-14-31-17.png?w=748&h=420&crop=1" /><br />
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<i>Mancunians confront the EDL</i></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">References:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">Cocking C. (2013) Crowd flight during collective disorder- a momentary lapse of reason?</span><i style="line-height: 22px; text-align: center;"> Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling,</i><span style="line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">10 (2) p.219-36. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jip.1389/abstract" style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration-line: none;">DOI:10.1002/jip.1389</a></span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Cocking C (2016) Brussels terror attack victims show how humans help each other in times of crisis. Published</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">online in</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">The<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> Conversation</span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">, 22/3/16. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://theconversation.com/brussels-terror-attack-victims-show-how-humans-help-each-other-in-times-of-crisis-56707" style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration-line: none;">https://theconversation.com/brussels-terror-attack-victims-show-how-humans-help-each-other-in-times-of-crisis-56707</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 20.79px; text-indent: -18.9333px;">Cocking, C. & Drury, J. (2014) Talking about Hillsborough: ‘Panic’ as discourse in survivors’ accounts of the 1989 football stadium disaster. <i>Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 24 </i>(2) 86-99.<i> </i>DOI: 10.1002/casp.2153</span><span style="line-height: 20.79px; text-indent: -18.9333px;">;</span><span style="line-height: 20.79px; text-indent: -18.9333px;"><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.2153/abstract" style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration-line: none;">http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.2153/abstract</a></span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 20px; text-indent: -28.8px;">Drury, J. and Cocking, C. (2007). The mass psychology of disasters and emergency evacuations: A research report and implications for practice.</span><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf" style="color: #6699cc; line-height: 20px; text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: -28.8px;">http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf</a> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Drury, J., Cocking, C., & Reicher, S. (2009a). Every one for themselves? Understanding how crowd solidarity can arise in an emergency: An interview study of disaster survivors. British Journal of Social Psychology 48.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Drury, J., Cocking, C., Reicher, S. (2009b). The nature of collective ‘resilience’: Survivor reactions to the July 7th (2005) London bombings. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 27 (1) 66-95.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span>chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-50929505300091969522016-08-29T13:13:00.002-07:002016-08-30T06:02:35.700-07:00'Panic' at US airports?There have been a couple of recent incidents at US airports that have created some interesting discussions about crowd behavior. Last night, (28/8/16) the passenger terminals at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) were evacuated after <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37211909">reports </a> that loud noises were misinterpreted as gun-shots. This follows a similar incident at New York's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37081801">JFK</a> airport two weeks previously, and both have generated detailed coverage in the US media, with reports of people 'stampeding' and mass 'panic' along with some lurid speculation about the inherent dangers of crowds. However, as is often the case with coverage of such incidents, I think what actually happened is a little more complicated than mere crowd 'irrationality'. In this post, I will quickly look at both incidents in turn, and then explain that while there could be possible implications for safe crowd management, adopting a default position that crowds will behave irrationally in such situations could obscure proper understanding of what went on, and more importantly, reduce the chances of any such future incidents being managed safely. <br />
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<b>JFK & </b><b>LAX evacuations</b><b>: </b><br />
The first incident happened at JFK airport on 14/8/2016, and there is quite detailed <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/the-terrifying-jfk-airport-shooting-that-wasnt.html">coverage</a> in the <a href="http://nymag.com/">New York</a> magazine suggesting that the following chain of events happened. It seems that an initial crowd surge began after applause in response to Usain Bolt's victory in the 100m Olympic final was falsely believed by some to be gunfire and one passenger reported seeing a gun. The resulting crowd movement caused some of the metal poles that are used to create queue lines to fall over (like the ones in the picture below), which created a clacking sound that some believed was gunfire, giving further credence to the rumours already circulating that there were active shooters in the airport. There were also <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/report-shots-fired-at-jfk-airport.html">reports </a>that the Police drew their weapons and ordered passengers to leave the terminal at gun point with their hands raised. Therefore, there seems to have been a cascading chain of events that added credibility to the rumors of shooters being present and resulted in heightened anxiety among those present and the consequent crowd flight that was seen.<br />
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<img alt="Passengers on the ground in the immigration area of JFK airport, 15 August" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/7D13/production/_90791023_cowering.jpg" /></div>
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<i>People take cover at JFK</i></div>
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Moving now to the incident at LAX, similar scenes seem to have happened after loud noises were also misinterpreted as gunshots. Coverage of the story in the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-airport-shooter-20160828-snap-story.html">LA Times</a>, states that after a person dressed as Zorro with a sword was detained by Police outside the passenger terminals (he was released after they realized it was a plastic sword), rumours circulated of an active shooter, which caused passengers to evacuate the terminal, with some leaving their baggage behind and/or opening emergency doors that led onto the tarmac where the planes were situated. The following eye-witness account illustrates the anxiety that some of those affected appear to have experienced;</div>
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<i><b>'Actress Anne Dudek of Santa Monica was one of the travelers who fled from Terminal 7 after her United Airlines flight arrived about 8:30 p.m. She said that she went down the escalator to baggage claim about 8:45 p.m and a man who appeared to be panicked ran by, warning everyone to run because he said people were being shot. "People started dropping bags and running out of the terminal," she said. "Panic spread." Dudek said she did not hear any shots, but decided to leave Terminal 7. She ran across the street, headed through the parking structure and made her way to the area near Southwest Airlines. She eventually reached her parked car and left the airport.'</b></i><br />
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<b>'Panic' or logical flight behaviour? </b><br />
While the previous extract presents a rather chaotic picture, the accompanying video clip in the LA Times article is less dramatic and while people are either running or quickly walking out of terminal, it is all quite orderly, and not the actions that would normally be associated with a 'stampede'. I think this illustrates quite well how journalistic hyperbole (and sometimes even eye-witness accounts) of such incidents often slips easily into descriptions of 'panic'- something I have looked at in my own research of survivors' accounts of emergencies (Cocking & Drury, 2014). However, even if one accepts the premise that rapid flight occurred, there are a couple of things still worth considering.<br />
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First of all, research that I have done into crowd flight during emergency situations (Cocking, 2013) found that while such behaviour was often an instinctive reaction (e.g. people running as soon as they see a crowd surge towards them without waiting to find out the nature of the threat), socialized responses quickly over-ruled such instinctive reactions (such as helping people who had fallen over, re-grouping to deal with the threat etc). Therefore, I concluded that even in such extreme situations, describing sudden crowd flight as a 'stampede' didn't fit with detailed observations of what actually happened on the ground, and this has been supported by more recent <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/euro-2016-disorder-in-marseille.html">blog-posts</a> of other crowd emergencies.<br />
Secondly, there is the issue that crowd behaviour is often pathologized by outside observers with the benefit of hindsight. So it's very easy to write off the behaviour of passengers at JFK and LAX as 'panic' after the event when we know there wasn't an active shooter at either incident and so there was no need to evacuate. However, if you are caught in a fast-moving situation without access to information, then hearing from others that there is a threat may appear credible, and so fleeing from this perceived threat may seem to be the most logical thing to do at the time if you don't have an overall view of what is going on. This may also be particularly relevant in the current context of heightened security at US airports post 9/11, (and the more recent mass shootings in Paris, Orlando, Dallas etc) meaning that people may be more alert to danger at JFK & LAX compared to other international airports. Therefore, providing crowds with reliable information in emergencies is vital, an issue that I will address in my final section. <br />
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<b>Provision of information in emergencies: </b><br />
The provision of information during emergencies is a contentious topic, and until relatively recently, emergency planning and response was often influenced by the assumption that crowds will 'panic' if made aware of a threat- thus justifying the idea that information should be withheld in emergencies. Some of the LA Times coverage of the LAX incident may appear to support this notion, such as this extract with the reporting an interview with the local mayor;<br />
<i><b>Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the chaos that unfolded at the airport appeared to be a case of old-fashioned panic and miscommunication that spread quickly. "It's almost like a game of telephone, by the time people were hearing things, I think they heard it was an active shooter … that's when chaos can break out... It wasn't really the technology, it was just … one person yelling out to another and yelling to another.</b></i><br />
However, I would still take issue with the notion of contagion of 'panic' after people have alerted others to a possible threat. This is because decades of work into crowd behavior reject the idea that crowds blindly follow any source of information, and not all rumours circulate without question in crowds. I would argue therefore that the solution to this problem is not to withhold information as a rule from crowds in emergencies. Research I did with John Drury into mass emergencies (Drury & Cocking, 2007) concluded that wherever possible, information should be provided about threats, as well as action that people could take to avoid and/or mitigate such threats and keep themselves safe, The crucial points to consider are the delivery of information and also the relationship that the crowd has with that source of information, so looking at ways to build trust between the public and official sources of information is vital to prevent circulation of false rumours. Technology is increasingly used to deliver such information, and while it will never be a complete panacea, it can help send out a consistent message to everyone with a mobile phone in the vicinity. So for instance, LAX has an <a href="https://twitter.com/flyLAXairport/status/770185248378322944">Wireless Emergency Alert</a> system that they used in this incident to send out a text <a href="https://twitter.com/ProducerAli?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">message</a> advising people that there wasn't an active shooter.<br />
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<b>Conclusion:</b><br />
I would argue that we should take a more positive view of crowds than seems to have been adopted in coverage of the incidents at JFK & LAX. I'm not saying that we can't improve upon how such events are managed, but I would suggest that the possible problems that such incidents can generate do not rest within the inherent pathology of crowd behaviour and that emergency planners need to work with crowds more to ensure safe evacuations. Furthermore, the provision of consistent and credible information that crowd members can act upon is vital as this will help foster a more collaborative relationship with crowds, and most involved in the field of crowd safety management now accept this is crucial in ensuring that such incidents are managed safely.<br />
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<b>References:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">Cocking C. (2013) Crowd flight during collective disorder- a momentary lapse of reason?</span><i style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;"> Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling,</i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">10 (2) p.219-36. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jip.1389/abstract">DOI:10.1002/jip.1389</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px; text-indent: -18.9333px;">Cocking, C. & Drury, J. (2014) Talking about Hillsborough: ‘Panic’ as discourse in survivors’ accounts of the 1989 football stadium disaster. <i>Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 24 </i>(2) 86-99.<i> </i>DOI: 10.1002/casp.2153</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px; text-indent: -18.9333px;">;</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px; text-indent: -18.9333px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.2153/abstract" style="text-decoration: none;">http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.2153/abstract</a></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20px; text-indent: -28.8px;">Drury, J. and Cocking, C. (2007). The mass psychology of disasters and emergency evacuations: A research report and implications for practice.</span><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -28.8px;">http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf</a> </span><br />
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-70942911758500758002016-07-15T06:50:00.001-07:002016-07-15T08:24:17.162-07:00Crowd responses to the Nice attackFrance is reeling again after another horrific terrorist attack in Nice that has so far caused at least 84 deaths (including many children) during the Bastille day celebrations when a truck ploughed into crowds along the Promenade des Anglais on the seafront. This attack will be particularly painful for France, because of the great importance attached to the Bastille day celebrations. I was in Paris on July 14th a few years ago, and it was clear to me how important these celebrations that commemorate the French revolution are to the French psyche. Three days of national mourning from Saturday 16th July have now been declared, and the state of emergency imposed after the Paris attacks in November 2015 (which was due to end) has been extended by another 3 months.<br />
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<b>Crowd flight:</b><br />
There is extensive <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36800730">BBC</a> coverage of the incident and there are numerous <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36801431">interviews</a> with eye-witnesses that describe the situation in some detail. As is common in these situations, the term 'panic' is often used to describe people's reactions as they flee from danger. However, I would argue that far from being a 'panicked' response, people's reactions appear to be quite ordered within the situation that fits with previous work I have done on crowd flight in response to threats (Cocking, 2013). So, for instance, there does appear to be some evidence of an initially instinctive reaction by bystanders to the flee threat they faced, as illustrated by this eye-witness account;<br />
<i style="background-color: white; font-family: Helmet, Freesans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.375;">"</i><i>Then I saw the truck coming straight at me swerving all over the place. It was perhaps 50 yards away. After that there was no conscious thought, my body took over, time slowed down and I ran and thank God I got out of the way"</i><br />
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I found something similar when I spoke to people who had fled Police charges at demonstrations, and some reported that as soon as they saw the crowd surge towards them, then they began running as well, without waiting to find out what was going on. However, this surge was usually momentary, and tended to dissipate once they realised they were out of danger. In <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36800933">mobile phone</a> footage of the crowd flight in Nice, you can clearly see people running down the street, but the flight is quite orderly and some people are walking quickly rather than running at full-speed. Furthermore, not all people instinctively fled with the crowd, and another <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36800554">eye-witness</a> reports that when he saw people fleeing he actually ran towards the incident to find out what was going on. He does mention that there was 'fear & panic in people's faces', but this appears to be his description of the understandable individual reactions to a truly terrifying situation rather than any collective mass hysteria. He also reports that he helped up people from the ground who had fallen over in the rush to get away. In the footage I watched, I also saw people carrying children with them (at least 3 are still in their pushchairs), and some were still holding their bags. Finally, there were even reports of some people heroically attempting to stop the truck, as an eye-witness told the BBC;</div>
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<i>"Some people were hanging on the door and tried to stop it."</i><br />
Therefore, to me, while this was undoubtedly a terrifying situation for those affected, the crowd's responses still don't seem to fit with the mindless actions that are implied with use of the term 'panic'<br />
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<img alt="Video showed people fleeing" src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/CC05/production/_90392225_pixx.jpg" /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Mobile phone footage of crowd flight </span></i></div>
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<b>Social Support in the aftermath of the attack:</b></div>
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As has happened after previous terrorist attacks in France and Belgium, there has been an outpouring of support on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-36801371">social media</a>, with people offering sympathy, and practical help, such as the #<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortesOuvertesNice?src=hash">PortesOuvertesNice</a> hashtag, where people have offered help and/or shelter to those affected by the attack. Hashtags such as <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23PrayForNice">#PrayForNice, #JeSuisNice </a>& <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23NousSommesUnis&src=typd">#NousSommesUni</a>s (we are united) that show general solidarity with those affected are also trending. Such expressions of global solidarity are common after terrorist attacks, as I explored in a previous blog-post on <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/paris-attacks-their-aftermath.html">Paris attacks</a> in Nov 2015 an <a href="https://theconversation.com/brussels-terror-attack-victims-show-how-humans-help-each-other-in-times-of-crisis-56707">article</a> for the on-line Conversation after the Brussels attacks in March 2016. This is because far from dividing communities and exacerbating tensions (as is often the intention behind them), terrorist attacks can actually help bring people together with a shared sense of identity, which can then unite them not only in solidarity with the victims but also in defiance against those who perpetrate such murderous acts. This emergent sense of identity forms part of the theoretical model known as the Social Identity Model of Collective Resilience (SIMCR) that developed from work I did with John Drury into crowd responses to mass emergencies (Drury et al 2009 a &b). While the carnage unleashed upon innocent bystanders in Nice is truly horrific, I hope that this social support and practical help offered to those affected can be part of helping them to recover and re-build their lives and communities in the aftermath.</div>
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<img alt="People lay flowers at the scene of the attack in Nice" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/512/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2016/7/15/4e829db8-9167-4dd3-9e5d-8fc0de395a88.jpg" /></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;"><i>Floral tributes left at the site of the attack</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>References:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">Cocking C. (2013) Crowd flight during collective disorder- a momentary lapse of reason?</span><i style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;"> Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling,</i><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">10 (2) p.219-36. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jip.1389/abstract">DOI:10.1002/jip.1389</a></span></span></div>
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Cocking C (2016) Brussels terror
attack victims show how humans help each other in times of crisis. Published<span style="letter-spacing: -.05pt;"> </span>online in <i>The<span style="letter-spacing: -.05pt;"> Conversation</span></i><span style="letter-spacing: -.05pt;">, 22/3/16. </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://theconversation.com/brussels-terror-attack-victims-show-how-humans-help-each-other-in-times-of-crisis-56707">https://theconversation.com/brussels-terror-attack-victims-show-how-humans-help-each-other-in-times-of-crisis-56707</a></span>
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Drury, J., Cocking, C., & Reicher, S. (2009a). Every one for themselves? Understanding how crowd solidarity can arise in an emergency: An interview study of disaster survivors. British Journal of Social Psychology 48.</div>
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Drury, J., Cocking, C., Reicher, S. (2009b). The nature of collective ‘resilience’: Survivor reactions to the July 7th (2005) London bombings. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 27 (1) 66-95.<br />
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-48848940807074293472016-06-13T06:32:00.000-07:002016-06-13T06:37:17.013-07:00Euro 2016 disorder in Marseille Violence has marred the opening games of the Euro 2016 finals in France, with the most serious disorder happening in the lead up to the England v. Russia game in Marseilles on Sat 11th June. The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36509843">BBC</a> reported clashes in the Vieux Port area before and after the game, with French Police using <a href="https://twitter.com/tomwhite7/status/741674975061499906">water cannon</a> and tear gas to disperse fans. In the aftermath, the French authorities have urged banning <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36513700">alcohol</a> sales in cities hosting subsequent games, and UEFA has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36510550">reportedly</a> begun disciplinary proceedings against Russia (French prosecutors have also been <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36515213">reported</a> as saying that a hard core of 150 Russian fans were behind the violence), with the threat that both England and Russia could be disqualified if there is a repeat of the disorder.<br />
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<b>The 'English disease' or inadequate policing?</b><br />
As is depressingly common after football related violence involving England fans, there has been the usual rush by commentators on mainstream and social media to condemn the actions of a 'violent minority', as if it was entirely the fault of a few 'hooligans' that widespread disorder occurred, and that there were no other contextual factors to explore.The Football Supporters Federation (FSF) issued a <a href="http://www.fsf.org.uk/latest-news/view/fsf-statement-attacks-on-english-fans-in-marseille-euro2016">statement</a> on the violence where they rejected the idea that England fans were solely to blame. In a detailed and at times frank piece, they accept that not all England fans are 'angels', and that a small minority may have behaved in inappropriate and/or anti-social ways. However, they also argue that the anti-social activities of a minority were not representative of the vast majority of fans. Furthermore, to the best of their knowledge, none of the violence was initiated by England fans and there were also pre-planned co-ordinated & indiscriminate attacks against all England fans regardless of their behaviour;<br />
<i>'We have witnessed groups coming together – sometimes Russian hooligans, sometimes Marseille ultras, sometimes simply gangs of local youths – with the deliberate aim of attacking England fans eating and drinking in and outside bars and restaurants or making our way to the game. Some of them have been tooled up, some of them have had their faces masked, but all of them have been intent on starting trouble and initiating violence'.</i><br />
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This appears to be supported in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/12/britains-euro-2016-police-chief-lambasts-tooled-up-russian-fans">Guardian</a> article where the British police officer in charge of monitoring England fans in France says that there is evidence that a large group of up to 300 Russian fans planned and prepared for confrontation with the England fans before the game. The Irish Times journalist <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/ken-early-russians-go-to-war-with-an-english-myth-1.2682005">Ken Early</a> also argues that outdated myths are often associated with England fans (e.g. from the 70s & 80s when football hooliganism was a much greater problem) which means that they can often attract trouble from others looking for violence;<br />
<i>'The English crowd creates a trouble magnet, attracting the troublesome elements in the city, and the circle of chaos is complete when the aggressive police wade in with batons and tear gas'.</i><br />
This then leads us onto allegations of inadequate and/or inappropriate crowd management strategies, and the FSF statement is also openly critical of the French Police: firstly in their apparent lack of action to prevent the attacks against the England fans happening; but also that when they finally did respond, their tactics were indiscriminate and ultimately counter-productive;<br />
<i>'Time after time, the first intervention of the French police has been to use tear gas and then water cannons. It’s in the nature of tear gas that it doesn’t discriminate between perpetrators and passers-by, between attackers and victims, and it often lands when the villains of the piece have already run off – leaving those who have just been attacked or in the vicinity with eyes stinging and streaming, and struggling to breathe. The other consequence of this police approach is that while it may look dramatic and effective, with people running for cover, it actually leaves the hooligans free to fight again another day. None of them are arrested, they get to slope off and re-group ready for their next assault, or to travel to their next venue.'</i></div>
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This is supported by an interview in the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/06/12/british-hooligan-expert-says-marseille-2016-the-worst-yet-and-fr/">Telegraph</a>, with <a href="https://twitter.com/Geoff_Pearson">Geoff Pearson</a> (an academic from Manchester University who researches football policing) who witnessed the violence in Marseilles first hand. He was also critical of the French police, arguing that their public order tactics are often outdated and counter-productive as they seemed to escalate the situation in Marseilles when they finally responded to the initial disorder. This apparent failure in policing is also mentioned by <a href="https://twitter.com/cliffordstott/status/742314466273046528">Clifford Stott</a>, an expert in the psychology of football disorder & public order policing who worked with the Portuguese Police during the Euro 2004 Championships (Stott & Adang, 2004) .<br />
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<i> </i><img alt="Police using tear gas" src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/1103E/production/_89949696_99720636-bde1-4b37-9537-dfafca095713.jpg" /><br />
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<i>French police use tear gas in the Vieux Port, Marseilles</i></div>
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<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-36510601">Comparisons</a> have been drawn between the behaviour of England fans with Welsh fans (there was no disorder reported around Wales' game with Slovakia), and similar comparisons were also made between England & Scotland fans during the 1998 World Cup in France, which also saw disorder in Marseilles involving England fans, implying that it is something inherent to the English fans' psyche that allows hooliganism to emerge. However, there were also clashes <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-36510783">reported</a> between Northern Ireland & Poland fans before their game in Nice, so England fans were not the only ones from the UK involved in disorder this weekend. Furthermore, in a <a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Stott%20Hutchison%20and%20Drury%202001.pdf">study</a> of the 1998 disorder in France, Stott et al (2001) concluded that it wasn't the presence or absence of 'hooligans' that explained why disorder happened in some areas and not others. Instead, they found that collective violence was more likely in the situations where there was an atmosphere of inter-group hostility that contributed towards fans seeing violence as an acceptable response to what they felt were illegitimate attacks against them by other fans or the local Police.<br />
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<b>'Stampede' in the Stade Velodrome?</b><br />
There was also a specific incident in Marseille's Stade Velodrome towards the end of the game that is of particular concern. Around the time that Russia equalised, Russian fans broke through a thin line of <a href="https://twitter.com/ianherbs/status/741736287737122817">stewards</a> and charged the England fans, causing a crowd <a href="https://twitter.com/danroan/status/741747400906264576">surge</a>. It seems that there were inadequate numbers of stewards separating the England & Russia fans (a Mail on Sunday journalist <a href="https://twitter.com/draper_rob/status/741741806472286208">tweeted</a> that there were only five between the 2 sides), and the England fans quickly fled once they realised what was happening. This incident has been widely reported as a <a href="https://sports.vice.com/en_us/highlight/russian-fans-clash-with-england-fans-after-euro-match-causing-dangerous-stampede/?utm_source=vicesportstwitter">'stampede'</a>, and there were also <a href="https://twitter.com/nickeardleybbc/status/741735332887027712">reports</a> via Twitter that women and children were inadvertently trampled in the crush. My own research on crowd flight (Cocking, 2013) has found that the notion of an irrational 'stampede' is rarely backed up by detailed examination of what happens in these situations, and that people often try to help each other during such surges if it is physically possible to do. Therefore, there is little evidence that people deliberately trample over each other as they flee, and in the rare situations where this can happen (such as the <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/hajj-stampede.html">Haj</a> disaster in Sept 2015), it is usually because crowd density has become so high in a moving crowd that a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/03/hajj-crush-how-crowd-disasters-happen-and-how-they-can-be-avoided">crowd collapse</a> happens, and if someone falls over, there is a domino effect whereby people cannot stop themselves being pushed over those on the ground because of the physical pressure in the crowd. Therefore, I am wary of describing such incidents as 'stampedes', and in the photo below, there are at least two people in the crowd who seem to be reaching behind them to help others over the barrier- which doesn't match with the selfish and/or irrational behaviour implied by the term.<br />
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<img alt="Fans in Marseille stadium climb fences to escape trouble" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/146B3/production/_89953638_033419282-1.jpg" /><br />
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<i>England fans climb over barrier in the stadium to escape</i></div>
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<b>Conclusion:</b><br />
The events of this weekend are of serious concern, and it would be a tragedy if the Euro 2016 championship is allowed to be defined by this early disorder. However, I worry that it is all too easy to slip into lazy narratives relying on outdated historical concepts of football 'hooliganism' that can apportion the entire blame onto the wrong targets and prevent detailed examination of what actually happened. In a previous <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/aston-villa-pitch-invasion-moral-panics.html">blog</a> on pitch invasions, I argued that society often engages in moral panics about football fans, and I worry that a similar process is at play here. While England football fans may not always behave like angels, I think it is premature to rush to demonize them in the wake of any disorder and we need to carefully explore what other factors that contributed to the disorder in Marseilles. This is all the more vital because now that the truth about the Hillsborough disaster is widely accepted (that fans were not to blame & that crowd management failures were responsible), we must not allow ourselves to slip back to the outdated narratives about the dangerous and/or 'irrational' behaviour of football crowds that have been so prevalent in recent history.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">References:</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">Cocking C. (2013) Crowd flight during collective disorder- a momentary lapse of reason?</span><i style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;"> Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling,</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-align: center;">10 (2) p.219-36. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jip.1389/abstract">DOI:10.1002/jip.1389</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Stott, C. J. & Adang, O.M.J. (2004) ‘Disorderly’ conduct: social psychology and the control of football ‘hooliganism’ at ‘Euro2004’. The Psychologist. 17, 318-319.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Stott, C., Hutchison, P., & Drury, J
(2001).‘Hooligans’ abroad?
Intergroup dynamics, social
identity and participation in
collective disorder at the 1998
world cup finals. British Journal of
Social Psychology, 40, 359–84. <a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Stott%20Hutchison%20and%20Drury%202001.pdf">http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Stott%20Hutchison%20and%20Drury%202001.pdf </a></span></div>
chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-56651664419005407402015-12-30T07:33:00.000-08:002015-12-30T12:53:07.013-08:00UK floods & disaster mythsAs I write this post, storm Frank is currently battering the UK, with many residents in the North and West of the country facing yet more storm damage and flooding. My heart goes out to those affected, and I sincerely hope that people are able to stay safe and their communities recover quickly (so far there have been mercifully few injuries and/or fatalities reported). As is usual in these situations, natural disasters can often bring out the best in people, and there have been many reports of co-operation and altruism amongst those affected. For instance, an article in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/28/unruffled-yorkshire-spirit-dominates-anger-too-flooded-homes?CMP=share_btn_tw">Guardian</a> focuses on the stoicism and co-operation shown by the people of York in response to flooding in the town centre, and volunteers from the <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.muslimsforhumanity.org.uk/" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association</a> </span> (AMYA) have been helping to clean up flood-hit towns in the North West. All this fits with the work John Drury and I have done (Cocking, 2013; Drury et al, 2009; Drury, 2012), where we argued that rather than dividing people, mass emergencies can bring communities together to co-operate in the face of a shared threat.<br />
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<img height="640" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CXZfHgyWYAE72QB.jpg:large" width="360" /></div>
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<i><b>Volunteers from AMYA in action</b></i></div>
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<b>'Looting' - a disaster myth:</b><br />
However, despite this widespread outpouring of humanity, elements of the media have talked about how the floods have brought out a darker side of human nature. This has been apparent in the current emphasis being placed on the tiny minority of anti-social acts that have happened so far, and their willingness to use the term 'looting' before any detailed examination of the facts has happened. For instance, the introduction to the evening edition of <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/">Channel 4 News</a> on 29/12 referred to 'looting', but no evidence was produced in any of the reports to back up this assertion. This isn't to say that crime has been non-existent , and reports have been emerging of isolated crimes in flood-hit areas. For instance, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-35199509">BBC </a> have reported that a man was arrested on suspicion of theft of goods from outside flood damaged properties in Mytholmroyd, (causing a storm of outrage from members of the public on the the West Yorks Police-Calderdale Valley <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WYPCalderdaleValleys/posts/1101125186577074">Facebook</a> site), and a bike shop in nearby Todmorden has also been burgled. These events resulted in local <a href="https://in.news.yahoo.com/british-bikers-start-anti-looting-193752162.html">bikers</a> offering to set up anti-looting patrols, but an <a href="http://www.lbc.co.uk/">LBC radio</a> journalist later <a href="https://twitter.com/Albert_HEO">tweeted </a>that West Yorkshire Police had declined this offer & set up extra patrols to reassure the public. Furthermore, the Police commented that the burglary at the bike shop was an isolated incident, and there was '<i>no suggestion it was widespread'. </i>Finally, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35196852">BBC</a> has reported that homes in York are being targeted by 'looters', saying <i>'a number of houses were broken into' </i><i>. </i>However, the <a href="http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/index.aspx?articleid=16278">Press Release</a> issued by North Yorkshire Police refers to only 2 properties in the same street being affected- which sounds a lot less widespread than is implied in the original BBC report. This use of language is not mere semantics, because use of terms such as 'looting' (as opposed to 'theft or burglary'), invoke images of the breakdown of law and order/ anarchy etc. This can then create real fear in people, increase suspicion of others and even exacerbate social divisions, when they arguably need to be more united than ever before as they rebuild their communities.<br />
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<img src="http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1477956/lloyd-spencer-dave-cariss.jpg?w=736" height="360" width="640" /><br />
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<b><i>Local bikers offer 'anti-looting' patrols</i></b></div>
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<b>Conclusion:</b><br />
Overall, I would argue that so far we have seen very little examples of widespread anti-social behaviour in response to the floods and what has been far more common has been the generalised altruism and co-operation shown by those communities directly affected and also from outside volunteers coming in to help others. Unfortunately, the media still cling to the irrationalist notion that behind this veneer of cooperation we have seen so far, there lurks a darker side of humanity which we need to fear, and this is a depressingly familiar narrative in media coverage. In a previous <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/typhoon-hits-philippines.html">post</a> on Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in Nov 2013, I looked at how the media often exaggerate the breakdown of law and order when communities are struck by natural disasters. This isn't to say that there isn't any anti-social behaviour at all after disasters, but crime rates tend to fall (although it would be naive to expect them to disappear altogether!) and that any instances are the exception and not the rule. Therefore, as suggested by Jacob (2008) in his study of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the idea of widespread anti-social behaviours such as 'looting', is one of many disaster myths perpetuated in social discourse that just doesn't stand up to detailed scrutiny of events in their aftermath.<br />
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A live map of areas affected by the flooding in the UK can be accessed <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26189096">here</a><br />
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<b>References:</b><br />
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Cocking, C (2013) Collective resilience versus collective vulnerability after disasters- a Social Psychological perspective. In R. Arora (Ed.), Disaster Management: A Medical Perspective (pp.449-463). CABI: Oxford, UK.<br />
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Drury, J. (2012). Collective resilience in mass emergencies and disasters: a social identity model. In: Jetten, J., Haslam, C. and Haslam, S. A. (Eds), The Social Cure: Identity, Health and Well-being (pp. 195-215). Psychology Press, Hove, UK.<br />
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Drury, J., Cocking, C., & Reicher, S. (2009). Everyone for themselves? A comparative study of crowd solidarity among emergency survivors. British Journal of Social Psychology; 48(3), 487-506.<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 20.79px;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">J</span></span>acob, B, Mawson, A, Payton M & Guignard (2008) Disaster mythology and fact: Hurricane Katrina & Social attachment. Public Health reports, 123. 555-566.chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-81050634339668876962015-11-17T09:02:00.000-08:002015-11-17T13:45:00.351-08:00Paris attacks & their aftermathFrance is in mourning after 129 were killed and over 400 injured after Friday's attacks at multiple locations throughout Northern Paris. There has been blanket coverage of these events elsewhere, and the situation is developing continually, so I will limit this entry to focusing on a couple of significant phenomena that have emerged so far: firstly, crowd responses during one of the incidents and in the immediate aftermath; and secondly the wider solidarity and social support that has been shown in response to these horrific attacks.<br />
<b><br />Bataclan concert hall</b><br />
The incident that saw the worst loss of life was the attack on the Bataclan concert venue while the American band the 'Eagles of Death Metal' were playing, with 89 killed and almost 100 injured- some critically. This was clearly an unimaginably horrific experience for those who had merely gone out expecting to see a rock concert. However, within this carnage, there were also examples of the amazing humanity and cooperation that those affected showed towards each other, which yet again contradicts the notion within media reporting that 'mass panic' is the dominant response in such emergencies. For instance, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34827497">BBC</a> coverage of the incident describes how people were led to safety via an emergency exit by a security guard (although the article still uses the term 'panic');<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><i>'Amid the confusion and panic, a security guard shouted for everyone to follow him through an emergency exit to the left of the stage'</i></span><br />
Around 50 people also escaped by evacuating onto the roof of the venue, and a male survivor interviewed on the BBC's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06q6s2c">Newsnight</a> on 16/11/15 (about 26 mins into clip), reports how he and a number of others co-operated to escape through a sky-light from the venue. Interestingly, he illustrates how social norms endured as he says that '<i>we tried to be gentlemen, so it was ladies first</i>', and also describes how others showed great courage in helping others escape. Finally, there is a very moving (but also quite distressing) Facebook post from a survivor who also posted a photo of her blood-stained top (see below) that went <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3318812/You-never-think-happen-just-Friday-night-rock-Paris-survivor-posts-photo-blood-stained-t-shirt-reveals-played-dead-escape-Bataclan-massacre.html">viral</a> and has so far received nearly 3 million likes and over 800,000 shares. In it she details the support and compassion that fellow survivors displayed to each other during the attack & how passers by helped the victims in the aftermath, and is consistent with work I did with John Drury (Drury et al, 2009) into how people tend to behave during life-threatening emergencies.<br />
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<img height="640" src="https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/12226948_10153885227089893_214373103163256962_n.jpg?oh=69c90f9f42d8875ed802a1720892678d&oe=56AF41DC" width="480" /><br />
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<i>Survivor's blood-stained top </i></div>
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<b>False alarms & 'panic' in the aftermath?</b><br />
There has been footage circulating on-line of instances of crowd flight on the streets of Paris that have happened since the attacks, leading to further media speculation of 'panic' and 'stampedes'. For instance, the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11997510/Hundreds-run-as-false-alarm-sparks-panic-in-Paris.html">Daily Telegraph</a> shows a montage of 3-4 different video clips of crowd responses to an apparent false alarm after firecrackers were heard going off near the Place de la Republique. While there is clear evidence of rapid crowd flight in these clips, I would argue that this flight is a logical response to the very credible fear among people that there could have been further attacks. Furthermore, while the video shows people running and some even cutting across the candles and floral bouquets laid out in honor of the victims, no-one appears to be pushing other people (and there is certainly no evidence of anyone being trampled), and in a later clip, waiters are beckoning in people from the street to take cover in their restaurant, and helping in as many people as they can- an evidently co-operative act and perhaps even at some risk to their own safety. This all fits with previous work I have done on crowd surges during riots (<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jip.1389/abstract">Cocking, 2013</a>) and a <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/hajj-stampede.html">blog</a> on the recent disaster at the Hajj in Saudi Arabia, where I argued that such situations should not be called 'stampedes', as the term is too pejorative, and is not supported by detailed study of what actually happens.<br />
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<b>Shared unity & s</b><b style="background-color: white;">olidarity</b><br />
In the broader aftermath of the attacks, there have been numerous acts of global solidarity and support offered to the victims. For instance, various <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34825865">bands</a> have called off or postponed planned concerts as a mark of respect, with Bono from U2 demonstrating a shared sense of unity with the victims at the Bataclan concert hall;<br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: helmet, freesans, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.375;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"It's very upsetting. These are our people.<span style="font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.375;">This is the first direct hit on music that we've had in this so-called war on terror, or whatever it's called."</span></span></i><br />
This sense of shared identity was also manifested in a tribute to one of the British victims, Nick Alexander, (who was selling T-shirts at the concert) in an Observer <a href="http://observer.com/2015/11/we-are-all-the-road-crew/">article</a>, entitled ' we are all the road crew'. Various <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34822281">landmarks </a> around the world were also lit up with the colours of the French Tricolore flag to show unity and solidarity with Paris, with some holding placards with the message 'we are all Parisians'. A similar thing happened in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks this January, when <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/09/technology/social/jesuischarlie-hashtag-twitter/index.html">#JeSuisCharlie</a> became the most popular hashtag in Twitter's history. Again this fits with previous work that has been done into how exposure to adversity can bring people together. For instance, in an <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-we-remember-7-7-its-time-we-learned-to-trust-the-crowd-44210">article</a> I wrote with John Drury into the July 7th 2005 London bombings brought people together in their immediate aftermath, but there is also a concern that such attacks could increase Islamophobia and polarize communities in France and further afield. However, so far that does not appear to be happening, and when a demonstration was held in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lavoixdunord.lille/videos/553115664841646/?pnref=story">Lille</a>, against the Paris attacks, a small group of far-right activists with an anti-Islamic banner who tried to join were chased off by the crowd. As events unfold, we will no doubt find out more about all these incidents and their consequences, but I hope that the examples of unity and solidarity we have seen so far can serve in whatever small way as a counter-balance to the awful scenes Paris has had to endure and not allow such murderous acts to allow intolerance and extreme ideology of any form to prevail.<br />
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<i>Brighton Eye lit up with the colours of the Tricolore</i></div>
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<b>References:</b></div>
Cocking C. (2013) Crowd flight during collective disorder- a momentary lapse of reason?<i> Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling, </i>10 (2) p.219-36. </div>
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Cocking C & Drury, J (2015) As we remember 7/7, it’s time we learned to trust the crowd.<i> The Conversation, </i>3/7/15. <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-we-remember-7-7-its-time-we-learned-to-trust-the-crowd-44210">https://theconversation.com/as-we-remember-7-7-its-time-we-</a><a href="https://theconversation.com/as-we-remember-7-7-its-time-we-learned-to-trust-the-crowd-44210">learned-to-trust-the-crowd-44210</a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Drury,</span> J., <span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Cocking,</span> C., & <span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Reicher,</span> S. (2009). Every<span style="letter-spacing: -0.25pt;"> </span>one<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> for </span>themselves?<span style="letter-spacing: 0.15pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Understanding</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;"> </span>how<span style="letter-spacing: 3.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">crowd</span> solidarity<span style="letter-spacing: -0.25pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">can</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> </span>arise<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span>in
an <span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">emergency:</span> An interview<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">study</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.25pt;"> </span>of <span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">disaster</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">survivors.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15pt;"> </span><i>British<span style="letter-spacing: 2.85pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -.05pt;">Journal</span>
of Social Psychology<span style="letter-spacing: -.05pt;"> </span>48.</i></div>
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-32163615606875681672015-09-24T14:36:00.002-07:002015-09-24T14:36:29.151-07:00Hajj 'stampede'?<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Today saw the worst <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34346449">tragedy</a> at the Hajj in Saudi Arabia for 25 years, as 717 Muslim pilgrims were killed and nearly 900 injured in a crowd crush while on their way to the holy sites of Mecca. Information is still filtering through, but it looks increasingly like a fatal crush occurred when two large groups of pilgrims converged from different directions onto one road, known as 204 Street (see the following <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/09/24/world/middleeast/mecca-mina-stampede-hajj-maps.html?_r=0">map</a> for more details). As a result of this tragedy, the Saudi King has ordered a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34354651">safety review</a> of the pilgrimage. This safety review is of course welcome news, but I also worry that the coverage of this disaster still draws too easily upon outdated notions of crowd behaviour- namely the use of the term 'stampede' to describe what happened, and that the media must stop using the term to describe such incidents.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Rushing to use the term 'stampede'?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As soon as news started breaking in about this tragedy (about 10.00 GMT on 24/9/15), the UK media began using 'stampede' in their headlines (and have largely continued to do so, ever since), which rapidly launched myself and others onto Twitter to take issue with the use of the term. In a <a href="http://drury-sussex-the-crowd.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/why-do-stampedes-happen-at-crowd-events.html">blog</a> from 2011, John Drury looks in detail at why the term 'stampede' is problematic when describing emergency behaviour, because it implies selfish and/or animalistic 'panicked' behaviour by those affected. More recently, <span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">in a</span></span> <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/shanghai-crowd-crush-tragedy.html">blog</a><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 23px;"> after the Shanghai crowd tragedy on 13/12/2014, I argued that calling such tragedies as stampedes is rarely supported by later detailed examination of events. For instance, people rarely deliberately trample over others in crowd disasters (as is implied by the term 'stampede'), with victims more likely to die of compressive asphyxia because of dangerous levels of crowd density. Furthermore, the term 'stampede' could also serve to deflect blame away from possible crowd management failings and onto the victims themselves (e.g. "crowd 'panic' causes disasters"). This point of prematurely attributing blame was addressed by </span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/DrJohnDrury" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">John Drury</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; line-height: 22px;"> and </span><a href="https://twitter.com/GKStill" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">Keith Still</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; line-height: 22px;">,</span> <span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">i</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; line-height: 22px;">n interviews for the </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/11887302/Eid-al-Adha-At-least-100-killed-and-hundreds-injured-in-crush-during-hajj-outside-Mecca.html" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">Telegraph</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; line-height: 22px;"> newspaper today, where they we</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #404040;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">re both critical of the apparent attempts by some members of the Saudi authorities to blame crowd members for the tragedy before the full facts were known. For instance, soon after the disaster happened, the Saudi Health Minister was reported as already speculating that the tragedy was caused by crowd members ignoring official advice;</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 23px;"><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">'<b>If the pilgrims had followed instructions, this type of accident could have been avoided'</b></span></i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Conclusion:</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">The terrible scenes in Mina show the dangers that can exist in large crowds. However, I believe very strongly that it is possible to safely manage large numbers of people, and that tragedies such as the one seen today are not inevitable. However, when such tragedies do occur (and they are mercifully rare), I don't think it helps to describe them as 'stampedes', as it is such a loaded term, and does not accurately describe what actually happens in such incidents. Furthermore, it</span></span> <span style="color: #333333; line-height: 23px;">could also serve to </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 23px;">unduly influence </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 23px;">any future investigations (such as the safety review that has been announced). </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">Therefore, I believe that this is not a simple semantic issue of language use, and if we are going to improve safety at large crowd events, using outdated </span></span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 22px;">terms such as 'stampede'</span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;"> when things go wrong, will only get in the way of trying to create safer crowd experiences for everyone involved.</span></span><br />
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<img alt="hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims make their way to cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan in Mina, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015." src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/0553/production/_85736310_0937e632-fd68-4a5e-be69-56b685a401ab.jpg" /></div>
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-78888630305064747712015-09-10T14:20:00.001-07:002015-09-10T14:20:06.786-07:00 Las Vegas plane fire and evacuation behaviourThe <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34206347">recent </a>evacuation of British Airways flight BA2276 that suffered an engine fire as it began take-off at Las Vegas airport has caused some controversy, as illustrated in a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34191035">BBC</a> article about the incident<i>. </i>It focuses on the chorus of disapproval circling around social media (two examples are copied below) in response to reports that some passengers delayed their own and others' evacuation as they retrieved their hand luggage (in direct contradiction to the usual instructions for evacuation procedures). Such criticism has been countered by the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/09/british-airways-fire-we-saw-the-smoke-the-smell-was-bitter-it-was-time-to-panic">Guardian</a> journalist <a href="https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg">Jacob Steinberg</a> who found himself on this very flight, and seems to be excusing this behaviour because people 'panicked'; <br />
<i><b>'There were even some passengers who tried to get their luggage out of the overhead lockers. I’ve subsequently seen some criticism of them on Twitter but if you weren’t there, how do you know how you would have reacted? People do odd things when they panic'.</b></i><br />
I think this incident raises some interesting issues about how people behave in emergencies. First of all, it's worth highlighting that not all passengers behaved in this way and took their hand luggage with them, so it was not action done by the group as a whole. For instance, a British passenger <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34215283">interviewed</a> said that he followed instructions to leave his luggage on the plane (and reports that others also did the same) and also that he wasn't personally inconvenienced himself by others taking out their luggage (although he saw people outside the plane who had obviously done so). Furthermore, Jacob Steinberg also points out that others on the plane voiced their disapproval when it happened, so it was by no means a generally accepted norm of behaviour;<br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><b> <span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">"There were certainly shouts for people not to do it when they opened lockers"</span></b></i></span><br />
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Secondly, while people delaying their own (and possibly others') evacuation to get their luggage out during plane fires is not particularly sensible or co-operative behaviour, I would say it's not necessarily 'panic' either. This is because the classic view of 'panic' behaviour would imply that people would rush blindly to the closest exit with complete disregard for their possessions (or other people in their way) and there doesn't seem to be any evidence that this happened during this incident. Rather than 'panicking' I would suggest that focusing on retrieving one's belongings may be an example of the dissociative behaviour sometimes displayed by individuals in emergencies to help them ignore the seriousness of the situation- something suggested in a <a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf">report</a> I wrote with John Drury looking at mass emergency behaviour (Drury & Cocking, 2007, p.8).<br />
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Finally, such behaviour is not always seen in plane evacuations, and I think it's worth drawing some historical comparisons with more serious plane fires that have ended in tragedy. For instance, the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/1985/aug/23/transport.uk">Manchester airport disaster</a>, on August 22nd 1985, killed 55 people after one of the plane's engines caught fire on take off. The air accident <a href="https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/8-1988-boeing-737-236-g-bgjl-22-august-1985">report</a> concluded that most of the fatalities occurred because of delays in evacuation, since people who were not able to evacuate the plane immediately became quickly incapacitated by the toxic smoke that filled the cabin and died from smoke inhalation. However, the delays in evacuation were largely due to passengers' difficulties in being able to see their way through the smoke and also in getting the cabin doors open, and one of the surviving cabin staff reported that passengers were not carrying any <i><b>'noticeable or unacceptable hand baggage'</b> </i>p.43. Therefore,perhaps the less serious nature of the incident at Las Vegas airport (mercifully, everyone survived the evacuation of flight BA2276) meant that passengers felt less of a sense of urgency to evacuate than passengers would have during the Manchester airport fire, and so they thought it wouldn't be a problem if they paused to get their luggage . <br />
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<b>Conclusion:</b><br />
I'm not saying that passengers delaying their own and others' exit during plane evacuations to retrieve their luggage isn't problematic (I'm getting on a plane tomorrow afternoon and will make sure my hand luggage stays put if we have to evacuate!), but I would resist attempts to describe such behaviour as 'panic'. This is because trying to excuse such behaviour as 'understandable in the circumstances because people can't help themselves' doesn't really help us tackle the problem. Perhaps such behaviour could be better explained in terms of a social dilemma, which is something I have looked at in previous <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/black-friday-incidents-are-not.html">blogs</a>. This is because what may be perceived to be in the individual's short term interests (to evacuate with all one's possessions) may not be in the group's interests (as it could delay others evacuating). So I would say the crucial thing is to try much harder to convey the message to air travellers that it's in everyone's collective interest to act co-operatively during evacuations, and that delaying your exit to retrieve your duty free from the holdall above does not serve the collective good (and could end up risking your own life as well). Furthermore, if social norms develop where such behaviour is not considered appropriate and other passengers routinely express their disapproval to those who do it, we will hopefully see less of it in future plane evacuations. Failing that, I have seen some on-line comments suggesting that overhead lockers should be electronically locked until everyone has safely evacuated during emergencies! <br />
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<b>References:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Drury, J. & Cocking, C. (2007). <i>The
mass psychology of disasters and emergency evacuations: A research report and
implications for practice</i>. University of Sussex, Brighton</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf">http://www.sussex.ac.uk/affiliates/panic/Disasters%20and%20emergency%20evacuations%20(2007).pdf </a></span><br />
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<img alt="Tweet by Stuart McAllister" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/F98D/production/_85458836_stuartplane.jpg" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><i>Tweet expressing disapproval of some passengers' behaviour</i></span></span></span></span></div>
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<i>Cartoon by airline pilot <a href="https://twitter.com/Chris_Manno">Chris Manno</a></i></div>
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<br />chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-84836724467344697292015-08-29T08:51:00.001-07:002015-08-29T09:05:03.774-07:00Shoreham disaster memorial service- a 'bridge over troubled water' Today I attended the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-34086621">memorial service</a> for the Shoreham air disaster on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoreham_Tollbridge">Shoreham Tollbridge</a>, where there was a minute's silence at 13.20 to commemorate the time exactly one week ago that 11 people tragically lost their lives. Unsurprisingly, it was a sombre and moving experience, with hundreds of people packed on to the bridge itself to pay their respects, many more lining the banks of the river Adur, and some even attending in small boats in the river itself. In my last <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/shoreham-air-disaster-and-community.html">post</a> I looked at how the bridge had become a focus-point for people wishing to leave floral tributes (it is one of the closest available viewpoints to where the accident happened on the A27). When I visited on the Monday after the tragedy to pay my respects there was already a significant number of bouquets covering a couple of spans of the bridge. However, today the whole of the north side of the bridge was covered in floral bouquets, football T-Shirts, photographs of the victims, toys, and various other tributes. There was even a wedding bouquet that had been left by a woman whose daughter had got married the same day of the disaster. As with my last visit there were also many touching written tributes to the victims and their loved ones, a selection of which are as follows; <br />
<i><b>"Nearly 1 week since the unfortunate news, where Shoreham Town felt really bruised... Family and friends should know, Shoreham Town is your comfort pillow'</b></i><br />
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<i><b>'We may not have known you, but we will never forget you'</b></i><br />
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<i><b>'It could have been anyone of us'</b></i><br />
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There were similar sentiments reported in the mainstream media, with the local Newspaper- the <a href="http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/13634614.Shoreham_Airshow_disaster__Country_to_unite_in_silence_for_victims/">Argus</a> reporting, '<i>Country to unite in silence for victims', </i>and the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34088379">BBC</a> highlighting the sense of common identity and mutual support that has emerged from the tragedy, with the following quotes;<br />
<i><b>'We're all in this together' </b></i><br />
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<i><b>'The local community has come together, out of tragedy, there is some goodness that comes out of it'</b></i><br />
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Finally, there have also been social media tributes, with a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/522668701220833/">Facebook </a>page and many posts on <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ShorehamAirshow&src=tyah">Twitter</a> to highlight the minute's silence for the victims that was observed both locally and nationally.<br />
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To me, these different forms of tributes illustrate how disasters can bring people together with a shared sense of identity and mutual support. Work that myself and others has done into social support during and after disasters (Cocking, 2013; Drury 2012) looked at how rather than being seen as a potential problem (as they often are in coverage of mass emergencies) crowds can serve as a kind of 'social cure' in that they can bring people together to support each other in the face of adversity. I wouldn't want to downplay the unimaginable sense of pain and loss that those affected by this tragedy must be feeling, but what I saw today on Shoreham Toll-bridge reinforces my belief in the healing potential that groups can have. This is because it felt today that I was not just in a physical mass- but that I was part of a united crowd of people with a shared purpose and sense of mutual support. I hope that by seeing so many people coming together in this way can provide some comfort for those affected by this tragedy. Or to use the words of one of the tributes I saw today, perhaps Shoreham Toll-bridge will become <i><b>"a bridge called love"</b></i><br />
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<b>NHS telephone help-lines have been set up that anyone affected by the disaster can call as follows</b><br />
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<b>West Sussex: 01903 703548</b><br />
<b>Brighton & Hove: 0300 00 20 060</b><br />
<b>East Sussex: 0300 00 30 130</b><br />
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<i>Crowds gathering on Shoreham Toll-Bridge for memorial service</i></div>
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<i>Buglers sounded the 'Last Post' to begin the minute's silence </i></div>
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<b>References:</b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Cocking, C (2013) Collective resilience versus
collective vulnerability after disasters- a Social Psychological perspective.
In R. Arora (ed.) <i>Disaster Management: A Medical Perspective. </i>CABI: Oxford, UK.<i> </i></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://bookshop.cabi.org/?page=2633&pid=2433&site=191" target="_blank">http://bookshop.cabi.org/?page=2633&pid=2433&site=191</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 14.2pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Drury, J. (2012). Collective resilience in mass
emergencies and disasters: a social identity model. In: Jetten, J., Haslam, C.
and Haslam, S.A. (eds) <i>The Social Cure:
Identity, Health and Well-being</i>. Psychology Press, Hove, UK.</span></div>
chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-7167716668056488572015-08-24T12:03:00.001-07:002015-08-24T12:05:29.447-07:00Shoreham air disaster and community supportIt has been a sad weekend for Sussex, and the impact of the disaster at <a href="http://www.shorehamairshow.co.uk/">Shoreham air-show</a> is still unfolding. Current <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34044383">news reports </a> are that 11 people are feared dead after a Hawker Hunter Jet crashed on the A27 dual carriageway while attempting to loop the loop during the air-show this weekend. The authorities initially feared that there could have been as many as 20 victims in total, but as I write this the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2015/aug/24/shoreham-airshow-disaster-police-fear-death-toll-could-rise-latest-updates">Guardian</a> is reporting that the plane has been removed from the site and no more bodies have been discovered underneath the wreckage.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoreham_Tollbridge">Shoreham Tollbridge</a> spans the river Adur and has become the centre for a growing floral tribute to the victims and their families (below are some photos taken earlier today by Guardian journalist <a href="https://twitter.com/Haroon_Siddique">Haroon Siddique</a>). I visited this tribute today so that I could pay my own respects as I think it's important to remind oneself of the human costs involved when researching disasters and mass emergencies. It was quite a moving experience, and I was struck by the scale and content of the tributes left by the local community. In a previous blog I looked at the spontaneous social support that emerged after the death of the singer-songwriter <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/i-went-to-see-amy-winehouse-last-night.html">Amy Winehouse</a>. A similar process seems to be happening in response to the Shoreham disaster, although here we are seeing people coming together to commemorate those who were mainly ordinary members of the public caught up in a tragic accident (as opposed to a global celebrity with a loyal fan-base who was constantly in the media spotlight). Of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34033660">victims </a>named so far, two are footballers from the local team Worthing United, and I saw some moving tributes to them on the bridge from their friends and family. The floral tribute was growing larger by the minute when I was there, as a constant stream of people arrived to pay their respects, and by the time I left, there were already a couple of hundred bouquets along with some football T-Shirts in memory of the local footballers.However, what I thought was also significant was that the majority of written tributes I saw were either from anonymous sources or from people who didn't appear to know directly any of the victims, but still wanted to pay their respects as members of the local community, and a selection are copied below; <br />
<br />
<i>'<b> A community left numb'</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>'Terrible tragedy to happen to our county' </b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>'Shoreham weeps for all the victims'</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>'We didn't know you but we came because we care. We wanted you to know that you and your families are in our thoughts. Shoreham grieves for you and with you'</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>'To all who lost their lives I hope you find peace and to the families and friends my deepest sympathy and condolences. This has truly shocked our community'.</b></i><br />
<br />
Finally, the one I thought was most touching was the tribute accompanying the drawing in the photo below which simply said;<br />
<br />
<b>'<i>RIP from a little girl'</i></b><br />
<br />
<br />
In work I did with John Drury on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-we-remember-7-7-its-time-we-learned-to-trust-the-crowd-44210">7/7 London bombings</a>, we found that people can come together to co-operate during mass emergencies because a common identity emerged amongst crowd members in response to a shared threat, and we argued that people would also support each other in the aftermath of such emergencies if they could maintain such a shared identity. What we felt was significant was that the vast majority of people caught up in the crowds during the 7/7 attacks were total strangers, but they still reported a strong sense of identity which emerged from their shared experience of adversity. I believe that the growing floral tributes I saw today are also evidence of the emergent community support and solidarity that can come from strangers and I hope this is of some comfort to those affected by this terrible accident. <br />
<br />
<img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CNK18EHWcAEKnN2.jpg:large" /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><b>The growing floral tribute on Shoreham Toll-bridge</b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CNK2Jh3WcAAFvWE.jpg:large" /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><b><br /></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><b>'RIP from a little girl'</b></i></div>
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<br />chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-89410802238232586542015-07-31T10:01:00.001-07:002015-07-31T10:01:14.889-07:00Sousse attack and crowd responsesThe BBC's Panorama has produced a programme about the recent terrorist attack in Sousse, Tunisia, called 'Terror on the beach'. It is currently available on the BBC's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b064dtd8/panorama-terror-on-the-beach">iplayer</a> in its entirety and there are also on-line <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33611482">extracts</a> from interviews with survivors and witnesses as they describe the horrific chain of events that led to 38 innocent holidaymakers (30 of whom were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33300776">British</a>) being killed in the attack. These accounts are certainly pretty harrowing at times, but within the tales of terror and confusion, there also emerge some interesting examples of how people can spontaneously come together to help each other in such situations- not only amongst the holidaymakers targeted by the gunman, but also the heroism shown by local Tunisians in trying to protect them.<br />
<br />
<b>Survivor co-operation: </b><br />
The attack began when the gunman started shooting on the beach, and there was understandable fear and rapid flight as the full horror of what was going on dawned on those present. However, even in this horrific situation holidaymakers were showing concern for others, and this is clearly illustrated by the following quote from British tourist Tony Callaghan;<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>I said to my wife "Run back to the hotel. Take cover." But I couldn't go with her at that point because there were too many people who were just lazing on the loungers, just looking up, without any sense of urgency. I started shouting at the top of my voice for people to run. I was waving my arms around and I must have stayed there another minute or more.</i><br />
<br />
This quote is also interesting because it shows that he stays behind and places himself at further risk to alert others of the danger (most of whom were presumably not close friends or family and possibly even complete strangers). Tony's wife, Christine then describes how other tourists comforted her as she left her husband to escape the beach; <br />
<div>
<i><br /></i>
<i>I was walking as fast as I could. My heart was beating so fast I was trembling. As I started to cry, a lady came towards me with her husband, asked if I was on my own, put her arms round me and gave me a hug.</i></div>
<div>
<br />
Later on, as people fled the beach towards what they thought would be the safety of the hotel, the gunman pursued them and began attacking people inside, meaning that they had to quickly find cover in which to hide. A British holidaymaker there with her two teenage sons describes the situation as 'sheer panic', but if you explore her account in more detail, interesting nuances in her account emerge that I think show the general co-operation that was going on. Sam (the mother) and Tom (her son) describe what happened when they fled into the toilets and were separated from her other son Callum;<br />
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<b>Sam: </b><i>We heard this other girl who followed us in there and she was crying in the toilet next door. I was saying: "Please be quiet." We didn't know if he was still in the corridor or if there were more of them. So we brought her into the toilet and she passed out. We had to sit her on the toilet and bring her round.<br /><b style="font-style: normal;">Tom: </b></i><i>She had a massive piece of shrapnel in her leg. I said to her: "I'm going to have to take this out if I'm going to stop the bleeding." So she said OK, and I pulled it out and packed her leg with tissue paper, and used my top to tie it round to try and stop the bleeding. Then I did the same with my mum's leg.<br /><b style="font-style: normal;">Sam:</b></i><i style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </i><i style="font-weight: normal;">I felt so sick. I thought: "This is it. We're not going to survive this." I didn't even know if my youngest son was OK. We were in sheer panic. Luckily we had our mobiles with us. The lady of the family that had Callum - they'd taken him and barricaded themselves in - rang me and said: "We've got Callum."</i></div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
So, I think these accounts show quite well how even in life-threatening emergencies, people will help and comfort those around them, even if they are separated from their loved ones and/or amongst strangers. This supports the research I did with John Drury into mass emergencies, such as the <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/some-thoughts-on-closing-statements-of.html">July 7th</a> 2005 London bombings (Drury et al, 2009 a&b), where we argued that a form of collective resilience emerged amongst survivors that encouraged co-operative behaviour (as opposed to selfish and/or 'panicked' behaviour) while they waited for outside help from the emergency services. It's not that everyone necessarily becomes super-heroes in these situations, it's more that general co-operative norms emerge that mean that simple acts of co-operation (or just comforting others in distress) become more possible precisely because people tend to remain calm (despite the understandable fear they may be experiencing), and that such co-operation would be much more difficult if there was mass 'panic' instead.<br />
<br /></div>
<img src="http://crimefiles.net/files/2015/06/TUNISIA-BLOODBATH-IMAGES-5-www.crimefiles.net_.jpg" /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Tourists comfort each other in the aftermath of the Sousse attack</i></div>
<br />
<b>Locals as 'zero-responders':</b><br />
It was not just tourists that co-operated with each other, and there were also numerous reports of local Tunisians shielding tourists from danger, helping victims, and even confronting the gunman to try and stop his murderous rampage. For instance, two locals working on the beach initially tried to reason with the gunman;<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>We said: "Please stop shooting." He didn't listen to us. He just kept shooting. He didn't care.</i></div>
<div>
<br />
They then helped evacuate some tourists from the beach in their boat (other tourists were also helped to hide in nearby shops by the owners) and then joined a growing group of locals who began to confront the gunman when it became apparent that he was initially only targeting tourists (although he later began shooting at locals and the police shortly before being killed in the final fire-fight). This willingness to confront the gunman manifested itself in two stages: first they formed a human chain along the beach to prevent him getting close to other tourists (as captured in the photo below), and then began actively pursuing him. This exchange, shows how two locals confronted one of the first policemen on the scene who was initially reluctant to engage the gunman (Rezgui);<br />
</div>
<div>
<b>Mehdi: </b></div>
<div>
<i>When I saw the tourist policeman, I said to him: "Why aren't you shooting the terrorist?" He said to me: "I don't have a bulletproof vest."</i><br />
<b>Mohamed: </b></div>
<div>
<i>I told him: "I've got no vest, but I'm going." He said: "It's your risk if you die." I said: "OK, no problem." The police were scared. One said: "If he sees me with a police T-shirt, he will shoot me." So he rolled up the T-shirt in his hand and he ran with the people. A young Tunisian man in red shorts seized a gun from an unwilling policeman and headed off to try to fire it at Rezgui. He missed him and the gun jammed after two shots.</i></div>
<div>
<br />
In a previous <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/zero-responders-nairobi-shopping-mall.html">post</a> about the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, I looked at the concept of 'zero-responders' which has been developed in recognition of evidence (eg Cole et al, 2011) that uninjured survivors and bystanders at major incidents are often able to spontaneously co-operate to provide first aid and evacuate survivors before outside help from first responders arrives. What is also particularly significant here, is that in this situation a 'zero-responder' seems more willing to take action than the policeman himself, which aptly illustrates the potential for 'zero-responders' to spontaneously take the initiative, especially in the face of hesitation from more official emergency responders <br />
<br /></div>
<img src="http://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/7/6/1436175474047/a5e42e38-79a1-4d0a-a38c-d15cc649512a-1020x612.jpeg?w=620&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=01d2a55ac211078dbf1074254ef6b622" /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Tunisians form a human chain and pursue the gunman along the beach</i></div>
<br />
<div>
<b>Conclusion:</b><br />
<br />
I have felt a connection with Sousse and the people of Tunisia in general ever since I was there during the 2011 Jasmine revolution and it was my <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/i-holiday-to-tunisia-where-i-found.html">experiences</a> there that inspired me to start writing a blog in the first place. Most notably, I was struck by their hospitality and caring attitude towards tourists. For instance, we witnessed a few protests while we were there and even got caught up in a riot where we had to scatter down back streets with locals, as there was a real fear that the police were going to open fire on the crowd. However, at no point did we feel threatened by the people there and other crowd members were talking to us and looking out for us as we fled. I find it desperately sad that such an atrocity could happen in Sousse, and feel not only for the victims and their families, but also the local Tunisians whose livelihoods depend on tourism and are presumably already suffering a collapse in the numbers of tourists visiting Tunisia. However, I hope that this post has shown that the sorrow and trauma brought about by the murderous actions of one person can perhaps be countered in some small way by the knowledge that hundreds (if not thousands) of others responded to this horror with the kindness and compassion that human beings often display to each other during mass emergencies. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<img alt="Flowers laid on Marhaba beach" src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/5FC9/production/_84512542_hi027957636.jpg" height="392" width="640" /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>References:</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Cole, J, Walters, M. & Lynch, M
(2011). Part of the solution, not the problem: the crowd's role in emergency
response, <i>Contemporary Social Science, 6 </i>(3)
361-375.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 135.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Drury J., Cocking, C., & Reicher S. (2009a). Everyone
for themselves? A comparative study of crowd solidarity among emergency
survivors. <i>British Journal of Social
Psychology; 48</i>, 487-506.<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 135.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 252.0pt 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Drury J., Cocking C., & Reicher, S. (2009b) The nature
of collective resilience: Survivor reactions to the 2005 London bombings.<i> International Journal of Mass Emergencies
and Disasters, 27</i>, 66-95.<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
</div>
chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-86070372413982501622015-07-24T02:02:00.002-07:002015-07-24T02:05:03.574-07:00Amy Winehouse's death & spontaneous social support <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">I went to see the </span>Amy Winehouse<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"> film last night on the anniversary of her death on 23/rd July 2011. It has been accused by some </span></span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/jul/22/why-the-amy-winehouse-film-is-little-better-than-the-paps-who-hounded-her" style="color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">critics</a><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"> of being little better than the paparazzi that hounded her to her death, and it certainly is uncomfortable viewing at times (especially when she crashes & burns live on stage in Belgrade shortly before her death </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">in 2011</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">). I think it also highlights how a very talented (but also very vulnerable) singer/songwriter descended on a self-destructive downward spiral of alcohol and drugs compounded by her suffering from bulimia that ended in her untimely death at the age of 27. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">However, I think the grass-roots reaction to her death also illustrates the positive power that crowds can have. I was in Camden a couple of days after she died & visited the shrine to Amy that had spontaneously developed outside her flat. It was quite a solemn and sad experience, but what I also found striking was how her fans and other interested passers-by had come together to mark her tragic death, and I believe this shows the power that groups can have to support each other in times of adversity. This fits with work that I and others have done (Cocking, 2013; Drury et al, 2011) that rather than being a potential problem (as they are often portrayed in social discourse) crowds </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">and groups in general </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">can be a source of mutual support, or a kind of 'social cure'. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>Photos of the memorial outside Amy's flat, Camden July 2011</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><b>References:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 14.2pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 14.2pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Cocking, C (2013) Collective resilience versus
collective vulnerability after disasters- a Social Psychological perspective.
In R. Arora (ed.) <i>Disaster Management: A Medical Perspective. </i>CABI: Oxford, UK.<i> </i></span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://bookshop.cabi.org/?page=2633&pid=2433&site=191" target="_blank">http://bookshop.cabi.org/?page=2633&pid=2433&site=191</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 14.2pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Drury, J. (2011). Collective resilience in mass
emergencies and disasters: a social identity model. In: Jetten, J., Haslam, C.
and Haslam, S.A. (eds) <i>The Social Cure:
Identity, Health and Well-being</i>. Psychology Press, Hove, UK.</span></div>
chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-60759624794069337362015-04-27T10:18:00.001-07:002015-04-27T10:21:13.249-07:00Nepal earthquake and 'panic'<br />
The international community is now beginning to respond to the devastating earthquake in Nepal at the weekend. So far nearly 4000 people have been killed and over 6500 injured, with 4 million affected (although these casualty figures will probably rise as more remote areas are reached and the true scale of the damage is discovered). The media focus seems to be rightly shifting to the international aid response, and this is a welcome development, as not only are there thousands of people in desperate need in an already impoverished region, but again I would argue that the initial media reports of 'panic' are yet again not supported by events on the ground.<br />
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<b>Media expectation of 'panic'</b><br />
On 27/4/15, Radio 4's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05rnx7c">Today </a> programme included an interview with a British PhD student based in Nepal (interview begins about 2:14:40 into the programme). In it he explicitly rejected the notion when asked by the interviewer if there was 'panic' & instead focussed on how people cooperated with each other;<br />
'<i>while people were scared, I wouldn't necessarily call it panic... </i><i>people were trying to help whenever they saw people in need'</i><br />
This is supported by the image below of people helping clear rubble & rescue survivors in Kathmandu and the general lack of police or military uniforms in the photo (I can only see one person wearing camouflage clothing) leads me to believe that there was general cooperation amongst bystanders in the aftermath of the earthquake- a concept known as 'zero-responders', that I have looked at in previous <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/zero-responders-nairobi-shopping-mall.html">blog posts</a>.<br />
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<img alt="People free a man from the rubble of a destroyed building after an earthquake hit Nepal, in Kathmandu, Nepal, 25 April 2015" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/82559000/jpg/_82559577_026909240-1.jpg" /><br />
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<b>'Panic' or evacuation?</b><br />
Another more specific way in which panic has been used, also needs picking apart, as again I don't think it stands up to scrutiny. For example, there have been <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-32472157">media</a> descriptions of people 'panicking' as they fled buildings during the aftershocks, and there is quite an evocative video clip <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-32475030">article</a>, where BBC journalist Justin Rowlatt is caught in the middle of an aftershock and people fleeing buildings for open ground are clearly visible. However, he also rightly points out that <i>'earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do'. </i>This is a basic tenet of safe evacuation behaviour during earthquakes, and seeing that the area where the earthquake happened is prone to such tremors, I would imagine that the local residents are familiar with such procedures. Therefore, far from being irrational 'panic', I would say that evacuating already weakened buildings during an aftershock is an example of sensible evacuation behaviour, possibly something that locals had learnt from previous education as to what is the safest behaviour in earthquakes. Another example of this is the photograph below of people evacuating a building in <a href="http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/panic-gripped-people-who-came-out-of-their-houses-buildings-news-photo/471082474">Lucknow</a>, northern India, which is near the border with Nepal. Within the story that accompanies this picture is the following quote;<br />
<i>'Panic gripped people who came out of their houses, buildings, hospitals and shopping complexes to take shelter in open as they felt earthquake tremors'</i><br />
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However, from a more detailed look at the picture, I can't see expressions of fear on anyone's faces (some even appear to be smiling), and there doesn't seem to be any running or pushing that might be associated with a 'panicked' evacuation. <br />
<img src="http://cache4.asset-cache.net/gc/471082474-panic-gripped-people-who-came-out-of-their-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=GkZZ8bf5zL1ZiijUmxa7Qbc2Vq3XtjZBe7LrP9r%2bAsqW43SDjV58HFM%2fh2%2fc0FW8r8W57tNjtcGx2Zu4ojXPiQ%3d%3d" height="408" width="640" /><br />
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<b>Conclusion:</b><br />
The Disasters and Emergency Committee has now set up an <a href="http://www.dec.org.uk/?gclid=CMWu6Y_ulsUCFc3MtAodxVsAVQ">appeal</a> for donations, and hopefully international aid will soon reach those affected by this awful tragedy. I am also relieved that media descriptions of 'panicked' reactions to the earthquake now seem to be receding, but I do wish that they wouldn't immediately jump into using the term, as it rarely matches up with people's actual behaviour and just perpetuates the myths about crowd behaviour that I and other colleagues in this field seem to spend so much time trying to unpick. <br />
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-25654118879938190942015-03-10T02:15:00.001-07:002015-03-10T02:21:22.592-07:00Aston Villa pitch invasion & moral panics<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A recent FA cup Quarter final tie saw a </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31787629" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">pitch invasion</a><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> by Aston Villa fans, as their team beat local rivals West Bromwich Albion by 2-0 at home, prompting </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31784920" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">media</a><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> reports of a return </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to the </span><b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">'</b><b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.2;">dark ages' </b><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.2;">of the 1970s and 80s when pitch invasions and/or football related 'disorder' were common place. However, </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: -0.200000002980232px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">I would suggest that </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.2;"> closer </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: -0.200000002980232px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">examination</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.2;"> of what seems to have happened during this incident shows such fears to be </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.200000002980232px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">premature and somewhat </span></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.2;">alarmist. Furthermore, I</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.2;"> would also argue</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.2;"> that the reactions by match commentators and the general tone of media reporting of this incident reflect what I think is an ongoing moral panic not only about pitch invasions at football matches, but also of crowds in general (especiall</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: -0.200000002980232px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">y</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.2;"> football crowds).</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 21.6000003814697px;"><b>Historical</b></span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 1.35;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;"><b> contexts:</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 1.35;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Pitch invasions have a long <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_invasion">history </a>at UK football matches </span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 1.35;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">(but </span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">are rarer these days</span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">)</span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 1.35;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;"> and were often </span><span style="line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">associated</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;"> with disorder. However,</span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 1.35;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;"> they don't always involve fighting between rival fans, </span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">and are more likely to be a celebratory response by fans to their team winning, and any interactions with rival fans are usually confined to </span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">ritualised behaviours (such as gesticulation, chanting, etc) rather than than overt physical aggression (see </span><span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;"><a href="https://manchester.academia.edu/GeoffPearson/">Geoff Pearson</a>'s work for detailed studies of football fans' behaviour & their treatment)</span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 1.35;">. However, football authorities (such as the FA and the Police) have tended to take a very dim view of such collective expressions of celebration, and they often respond to them in a fairly robust way (see photo below of </span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">the</span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 1.35;"> police response at Villa Park).</span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 1.35;">While they are technically <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1991/19/section/4" style="line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">illegal</a><span style="line-height: 23.2632007598877px;"> under the 1991 Football Offences Act, </span>there are rarely enough stewards/ police to stop a determined pitch invasion (let alone arrest all those who take part in one!), and prevention usually relies on social pressure, with clubs, players, and commentators all queuing up </span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">to criticise </span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 1.35;">such incidents in their aftermath- as happened this weekend . </span></span><br />
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<img alt="Aston Villa v West Brom" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/81474000/jpg/_81474288_villa1.jpg" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17.2320003509522px; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;" /></div>
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<i style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17.2320003509522px; line-height: 23.2632007598877px; text-align: center;">Police face the crowd at Villa Park</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Villa Park pitch invasion:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This particular game was perhaps likely to inspire strong emotions, seeing as Aston Villa and West Bromwich are local rivals from Birmingham, with their grounds less than five miles from each other. So, </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">during stoppage time (and perhaps </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">not altogether unsurprisingly), the first of two pitch invasions by Aston Villa fans began, and prompted the following</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> reaction from the match commentator Mark Lawrenson;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;"><b>Why would you do this? You're winning, absolutely stupid. Loads of villages have lost their idiots tonight. Absolutely bonkers.</b></i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Strong words, indeed. But in the televised <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31784681">footage</a>, this first invasion appears to involve no more than 100 fans at at most, and the vast majority of fans seem to stay in the stands, with<span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;"> some booing those on pitch & gesticulating for them to get off- presumably because if the match had been </span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;"><a href="http://www.footballsite.co.uk/Statistics/Articles/DidYouKnow01.htm">abandoned</a> at that point (with Aston Villa 2-0 up and very likely to win), the match would have had to have been re-played with no guarantee of them winning again. However, the second pitch invasion happened after the final whistle had gone, (meaning that Aston Villa were now through to </span><span style="line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">the</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;"> semi-finals), and involved many more Aston Villa fans (within a few seconds the pitch is full & large sections of the stands are now empty), suggesting that this second action was now broadly supported by the fans. The mood of </span><span style="line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">the</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;"> fans seems celebratory (rather than aggressive), and many of them surround the Aston Villa players to </span><span style="line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">congratulate</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;"> them and/or take their photos. Some of their behaviour may have been a little over-exuberant, but I can't see any footage that makes me think that anyone was under serious threat from the crowd (</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;">there's a <a href="https://twitter.com/Dr_ZaidShahin/status/574323044203679745">Tweet</a> that zooms in on footage </span><span style="line-height: 25.0544662475586px;">of the assistant referee furiously running away as the pitch invasion happens, but the crowd appears to ignore him). However, the alarmist media reporting continued, as illustrated in how the</span><span style="line-height: 25.0544662475586px;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31784681">BBC</a> presented their <span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="line-height: 25.0544662475586px;">i</span></span>nterviews with Aston players afterwards. For instance, the following extract with <span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">goalscorer Fabian Delph was </span><span style="line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">highlighted</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;">;</span></span></span><br />
<i style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 1.35;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>It was dangerous. Someone tried to take my boot off. People tried to kiss me and were biting me. It was scary</b></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">On its own, this suggests quite a scary situation, but if you go to the video footage where the quote comes from, you can see that Fabian laughs when he describes this incident, and doesn't seem to have been adversely affected by the </span><span style="line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">experience</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;">- so it doesn't seem so serious when viewed less selectively in a </span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">wider context. </span></span></div>
<img alt="Aston Villa v West Brom" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/81474000/jpg/_81474495_fans3.jpg" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17.2320003509522px; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;" /><br />
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<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.35;"><b>Moral panics & their tragic consequences?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Finally, there are potentially deeper issues involved with this </span><span style="line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">apparent</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;"> moral panic over pitch invasions, with the most obvious, being that of the 1989 </span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Hillsborough disaster where 96 fans were fatally crushed against metal fences designed to prevent a pitch invasion. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In a previous </span><a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-hillsborough-disaster-and-moral.html" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">post</a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> on Hillsborough , I highlighted the </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">tragic irony</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> raised by </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the </span><a href="http://www.epcollege.com/EPC/media/MediaLibrary/Knowledge%20Hub%20Documents/F%20Inquiry%20Reports/Hillsborough-Taylor-Report.pdf?ext=.pdf" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Taylor Report</a><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> into the </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">disaster</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, that previous to Hillsborough, no one had ever died during a pitch invasion at UK football matches, but on 15/4/1989, 96 fans died in preventing a fictitious pitch invasion that never happened. UK f</span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">ootball stadium design and safety procedures have come a long way since Hillsborough and such tragedies are t</span></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hankfully </span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">very unlikely to happen again. </span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">However, I worry that </span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">reports of pitch invasions that emphasise the 'irrationality' or even 'madness' of those involved, not only obscures accurate exploration of what actually happens, but also risks </span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">creating the space where irrationalist narratives of crowds could re-emerge into popular social discourse.</span></div>
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<img src="http://thegreatcritique.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/image011.jpg" height="438" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 1.35;" width="640" /></div>
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px; text-align: center;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Police cordon during the Hillsborough disaster</span></i></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.8500003814697px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">References:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Canter, D, Comber, M & Uzzell, D (1989) </span></span><span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="font-style: italic; line-height: 1.35;">Football in its place: An </span><span style="font-style: italic; line-height: 23.2632007598877px;">environmental</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;"><i> Psychology of Football grounds. </i>Routledge: London, UK</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.7900009155273px; text-indent: -18.9333324432373px;">Cocking, C. & Drury, J. (2014) Talking about Hillsborough: ‘Panic’ as discourse in survivors’ accounts of the 1989 football stadium disaster. <i>Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 24 (2) 86-99</i>. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.7900009155273px; text-indent: -18.9333324432373px;"><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.2153/abstract" style="color: #6699cc; text-decoration: none;">http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.2153/abstract</a></span></span></div>
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-65892504499419432552015-01-01T07:19:00.002-08:002015-01-02T07:15:17.193-08:00Shanghai crowd crush tragedy<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">New Year celebrations in Shanghai, China have ended in tragedy, with 36 dead and nearly 50 injured. It seems there was a fatal crowd crush about 20 mins before midnight, according to media <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-30646918">reports</a>. There has also been <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">speculation in some </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/01/01/uk-china-stampede-idUKKBN0K916Y20150101">coverage</a> that the tragedy happened when people rushed forward to pick up fake money being thrown from the balcony of a bar into the crowd. However, I have seen this account disputed by others on social media, claiming instead that the crushing happened at a different location to the bar, and a </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30646784" style="line-height: 18px;">BBC</a><span style="line-height: 18px;"> report also argues that the authorities in Shanghai were not adequately prepared for the size of the crowds on Shanghai's waterfront. I also saw an interview with a </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">survivor in hospital who reported that people moving in different directions through the highly packed crowds caused crushing problems.</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> So, I would suggest that crowd management failings may have been a more likely cause of the disaster. </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">We shall have to see if more information emerges about this tragedy that helps paint a clearer picture of what actually happened, but yet again, the media's </span></span></span>default response after <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">tragedies such as these seems to be to blame the victims of crowd disasters rather than the authorities responsible for their safe management.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-30646918">BBC</a> coverage quotes a <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">photographer from the US who paints a bleak picture of people's behaviour;</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"Nobody seemed to be in control and people were crying. It was one of those times when you see the worst in people."</i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">However, no further description is given of any actual examples of what anyone was doing that illustrates <i>'the worst in people'</i>, and the very next quote used from another witness which describes spontaneous cooperation in the crowd appears to contradict this assertion anyway;</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><i>"Lots of people spontaneously linked hands to block the crowds, so the injured had space to settle down, and to allow a clear passage for ambulances,"</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">As I have argued in previous </span><a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/zimbabwe-stampede.html" style="line-height: 18px;">blogs</a><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">, when disasters such as these happen, the term 'stampede' is almost always used uncritically by the media coverage to describe events, with all its negative connotations about crowd behaviour in such incidents- for instance that people are unthinking and/or selfish and trample over victims in their efforts to flee danger (for more details on why the term 'stampede' is problematic, see </span></span></span>John Drury's<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> excellent </span></span></span><a href="http://drury-sussex-the-crowd.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/why-do-stampedes-happen-at-crowd-events.html" style="line-height: 18px;">blog</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"> on the topic).</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"> Tweets I have seen from the c</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">rowd modelling expert</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.gkstill.com/" style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Keith Still </a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">argue </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">that the tragedy appears to have been caused by a </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><a href="http://www.gkstill.com/CV/Modelling/Pressure.html" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">Pressure Wave</a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> in the crowd resulting from a dangerous (but usually entirely avoidable) build up of crowd density, and he highlights that previous analyses of</span></span></span> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">crowd disasters </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">(e.g. </span><a href="http://www.gkstill.com/Support/crowd-flow/fruin/Fruin2.html" style="line-height: 18px;">Fruin</a><span style="line-height: 18px;">, 1993) have concluded that;</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.2399997711182px;">'Virtually all crowd deaths are due to compressive asphyxia and not the "trampling" reported by the news media'</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Another study of a fatal crowd crush at a concert by the Who in the US in 1979 (</span><a href="http://socpro.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/4/362" style="line-height: 18px;">Johnson 1987</a><span style="line-height: 18px;">), found that survivors tried to help others that fell over, (rather than deliberately trampling them underfoot) and if cooperation did not happen, it was because people were physically unable to do so due to crowd density pressures. If trampling does occur, it is rare, and usually because of a domino effect in highly packed crowds (e.g. if someone falls over the physical pressure of the crowd can force others to fall on top of them)- not because people are 'stampeding' blindly without concern for others as they flee danger. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Therefore, yet again I find myself repeating my call that we should stop using the term 'stampede' to describe tragedies such as the one seen in Shanghai, as it is not helpful in getting to the truth about what happens and may even distract from the apportion of responsibility for the tragedy, if as I suspect, it eventually turns out </span></span></span>that <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">crowd mismanagement</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> was the cause. Such disasters are not inevitable and it is usually possible to prevent them occurring, providing there is adequate crowd safety management planning beforehand, and speedy responses are put in place to </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">prevent crowd density</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> reaching dangerous levels. </span></span></span><br />
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<b>Update:</b><br />
Since I wrote the post above, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-30650539">BBC</a> have reported that Shanghai police now deny that fake money being thrown from a balcony was the cause of the tragedy, as this happened after the crush occurred (and the BBC has also largely removed references to 'stampede' in its coverage, and are now using the term 'crush' instead). Therefore, it seems increasingly likely that poor crowd management was instead responsible, and the casualties seemed to have resulted from dangerous crowding levels causing a wave of people to topple down a flight of stairs leading to a viewing platform. The Chinese President has ordered an investigation to examine whether there were enough police on duty to safely manage the crowds.<br />
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<b>References:</b></div>
Fruin, J (1993) <i>The Causes and Prevention of Crowd Disasters.</i> Originally presented at the First International Conference on Engineering for Crowd Safety, London, England, March 1993. Elsevier Science Publishers B.B. ©.<br />
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Johnson (1987) Panic at “The Who Concert Stampede”: An Empirical Assessment. <i>Social Problems, 34</i> (4) 362-73<br />
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-22833223345013112342014-12-31T04:41:00.000-08:002014-12-31T04:44:32.501-08:002014 review of the yearAs the year draws to a close, it's time for another review of the highlights of my blog for 2014. This year I looked at public order policing in the UK, and how it is still being influenced by the fallout from the 2011 riots in England. There were also examples of public order policing abroad that showed similar patterns to that seen in the UK (perhaps reflecting similar ideological views towards crowds held across the world).I also looked at Ebola, and how specific aspects of the disease as well as the authorities' apparent fear of public responses seem to have influenced how national governments have responded to the outbreak so far. Finally I focussed on situations where crowd cooperation may become difficult if people are set in competition with each other. Many of these stories are ongoing, so I'm sure I'll have lots more to blog about in 2015!<br />
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<b>Events close to home:</b><br />
The year began with the announcement of the result of the inquest into the death <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/my-thoughts-on-mark-duggan-inquest.html">Mark Duggan</a>, (whose shooting by officers from the Metropolitan Police sparked 5 days of rioting across England in 2011), and I criticised the media for playing up the possibility of disorder after the result of the inquest- something that also happened before the result of <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/scottish-referendum-disorder-dont.html">Scottish referendum</a> in September. I argued that while collective disorder in such emotionally charged situations is possible, it is far from inevitable, and that creating a climate where riots were expected, was not only irresponsible, but also makes it more difficult to conduct an objective examination of events in the aftermath of the comparatively rare situations when riots actually do happen.<br />
The theme of public order policing continued in February, when there was a public consultation into whether the Metropolitan Police should be allowed to use <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/water-cannon-report-update.html">water cannon</a> the next time there was major disorder in the capital . I wrote a <a href="http://about.brighton.ac.uk/hss/news/2014/140217-watercannon.pdf">report</a> that highlighted my concerns about its introduction to policing in mainland Britain (it is already used routinely in Northern Ireland): that water cannon was an indiscriminate tactic that would most likely escalate any disorder, and that there was a real risk of people catching hypothermia if it was used (especially if it was used in conjunction with the tactic of 'kettling' crowds). Authorisation to purchase water cannon from Germany was granted in June, and their use on British streets awaits final approval from the Home Secretary (which may be granted the next time there is serious disorder in the capital), and in a <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/metropolitan-police-given-authority-to.html">letter</a> to the Evening Standard, I responded to Boris Johnson's offer to be hit by water cannon (I believe he has yet to follow through on this offer!), arguing that there were more serious issues at stake behind this publicity stunt.<br />
<img src="https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/50834/width668/5m4fzjnk-1402484258.jpg" /><br />
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<i>Water cannon- coming soon to a riot near you? </i></div>
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<b>International contexts:</b><br />
Over the late summer and autumn, I looked at public order policing further afield, and argued that there were issues involved that were similar to those seen in the UK. For instance, August saw prolonged rioting in <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ferguson-riots-militarised-policing-is.html">Ferguson</a>, Missouri in the US after an unarmed Black teenager (Michael Brown) was shot dead by local Police. I argued that the use of indiscriminate tactics (such as Tear Gas, stun grenades, sonic devices etc.) and the heavily militarised response to the protests was a major factor in the instigation and spread of collective disorder. I also suggested that it was necessary to consider the wider social contexts in which these protests occurred, and the worrying frequency with which African American males die at the hands of mainly white police officers, shows that the US still has a long way to go in addressing social inequality and the distrust and alienation that many local communities feel towards their police forces. <br />
October saw the world nervously watching mass pro-democracy protests in <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/hong-kong-policing-britains-colonial.html">Hong Kong</a>, fearing a repeat of the bloody crackdown as happened in Tienanmen Square in 1989. Thankfully this did not happen, but the local Hong Kong Police did still display some quite forceful public order tactics at times. I highlighted an interesting historical coincidence that the current UK public order policing tactics were learnt from the colonial Hong Kong Police force after the riots seen in English cities in the early 1980s. So, it would have appeared slightly hypocritical had the UK government been too forthright in their criticism of the policing of the protests! <br />
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<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBz3GsLoCb2D37fW337gpLNWshkMrS2HfBcbLBuwIDAuSdI7BSzV2mHkeK-dH2XzXMqCh9GbtDpgdkHjDiED6eIfe0utYOYlpEd2iXtcJ_8340N249ehhJ-9CzLuqzXBr2bx7yRNpf4FM/s640/HK+short+shields+sept+2014.jpg" height="360" width="640" /><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hong Kong Police short shield unit September 2014</span></i></div>
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<b>Public health emergencies:</b><br />
This year saw 3 West African countries ravaged by Ebola, and I looked at how the authorities in the developed world have responded to this global public health crisis. I argued that the decisions in October by <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/elite-panic-wont-help-protect-australia.html">Australia</a> to suspend visas to people from Ebola-hit countries, and the UK to introduce <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/ebola-outbreak-keep-calm-and-carry-on.html">screening</a> for Ebola at UK airports (by asking entrants from the Ebola zone a series of questions and taking their temperature) could be considered as examples of 'elite panic'. This was because such decisions went against expert advice and appeared to be done in response to pressure to be seen to be doing something and could have limited effectiveness in detecting Ebola. This seems to have been borne out by recent events, as Pauline Cafferkey (a Scottish nurse who recently returned to the UK after treating patients in Sierra Leone) contracted Ebola after returning home, despite having her temperature taken 7 different times before becoming unwell. The Chief Medical officer announced today (31/12/14) that screening for Ebola will be <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30640262">reviewed</a>, although she emphasised there was still a very low risk of public infection, as Pauline was not displaying any symptoms when she travelled home (and people only become infectious in the end stages of the disease- which is why proportionately so many health workers in Africa have tragically died of Ebola).<br />
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<img alt="The patient being transferred from hospital in Glasgow" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/79979000/jpg/_79979538_2f30d225-515b-4aef-a692-8675ec2f718f.jpg" /><br />
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<i>Pauline Cafferkey being transported to specialist isolation unit at Royal Free Hospital, London</i></div>
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<b>Cooperation vs. competition?</b><br />
Finally, towards the end of 2014, I looked at the issue of cooperation (or not) in crowds. A classic (although often untrue) cliché is that people will become inherently selfish in crowds- especially in stressful situations. The work that I have done on mass emergencies has found that this is rarely the case, and that people tend to behave cooperatively, because a shared identity often emerges from the situation which encourages such cooperation. However, in situations where people are cast in competition with each other for limited resources, then it may be more difficult for such a shared identity to emerge, and so cooperation may be less likely. I argued that the scenes witnessed at UK stores on <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/black-friday-incidents-are-not.html">Black Friday</a> at the end of November illustrated this concept perfectly, and that retailers needed to be more responsible when planning for and hosting such events, as they had the clear potential to set people in competition with each other.<br />
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<img alt="Shoppers fight over a TV in a supermarket" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/79361000/jpg/_79361298_79357959.jpg" /><br />
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<i>Shoppers compete on 'Black Friday' </i></div>
chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002254741688321811.post-80296199449247661592014-12-26T09:36:00.001-08:002014-12-27T11:16:34.202-08:00Boxing Day Tsunami 10 years on<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Today the world is commemorating the 2004 Boxing Day <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30602159">Tsunami</a> which killed up to 250,000 people, made millions more homeless, and devastated communities across South East Asia. I can remember how as news filtered in at the time about the scale of the shocking devastation across such a vast area, there were also heart warming reports of how these incidents can bring people together (a concept that has been noticed in research into other disasters- Solnit, 2008). For instance, there was an almost immediate international response to provide funds for the relief effort in the weeks after the Tsunami, and the Disasters and Emergencies Committee (<a href="http://www.dec.org.uk/appeals/tsunami-earthquake-appeal">DEC</a>) raised nearly £400m from donations in the UK alone which was used mainly to rebuild people's homes that were destroyed by the Tsunami. However, there were also more localised examples of co-operation in the tsunami zone. These are explored in more detail in the BBC's coverage of <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/30462238">survivors' stories</a><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px;">, but I will focus below on a couple of examples which I think illustrate quite well some of the psychological concepts which also emerged in the work I have done with colleagues on mass emergencies.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Co-operation amongst those affected seemed to be the dominant response in the acute situation once the Tsunami struck, and what I think is particularly interesting is that this seems to have been a universal response across the whole region. So for example, some of the areas affected (such as the East coast of Sri Lanka and West coast of Thailand) are popular with tourists from Europe, and as the Tsunami hit land there did not appear to any differences in co-operation between locals and tourists, with people helping each other regardless of who they were as illustrated by a British tourist who was on the beach in Sri Lanka at the time;</span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the only positives to come out of it all was the humanity of it. It didn't matter about your nationality or religion. Everyone was checking on each other.</span></b></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This sense of co-operation was also re-iterated by a British couple who were close to land in a boat by the Ko Phi-Phi islands off the West coast of Thailand;</span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We all decided to stay on the boat that night, moored out at sea. The boat was too small to have taken us all the way to Phuket. The only option we had was to wait for help to arrive in the morning. It was the longest night of my life and were it not for the camaraderie of those passengers on board and the wonderful generosity of the Thai people who owned and manned the boat, it would have been unbearable. </span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As the sun rose, we took the boat in to the harbour once again and waited for the larger boats to arrive. It was just awful. From our position on the water we saw hundreds of people all desperate to get off the island. They were huddled together on the pier in the harbour.</span></b></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">These quotes support the research we did with survivors of mass emergencies (Drury et al 2009a & b) that found similar accounts of co-operation during life-threatening emergencies, which we explained through the emergence of a shared identity which encourages co-operation rather than competition. However, the second paragraph does illustrate a potential situation where such co-operation could reduce once any unifying factors diminish. For instance, I heard of unconfirmed reports that some European tourists were fighting on the jetties to get on the boats that were leaving Ko Phi Phi the day after the Tsunami. I would suggest that if this did happen, then it could be because the immediate threat of death had perhaps diminished once the waters had receded, so the strong shared identity that may have been present during the immediate crisis phase when the waves struck, could have become less apparent. Therefore, it is possible that some people could have retreated back into previously held identities before the disaster struck and then began competing for what they perceived to be scarce resources (eg European tourists who want to go home, fighting for places on boats to leave the island- rather than people who face a shared lethal threat who need to co-operate to survive). My last post on the crowd behaviour during <a href="http://dontpaniccorrectingmythsaboutthecrowd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/black-friday-incidents-are-not.html">Black friday</a> showed how people can behave competitively if they are cast against each other to gain limited resources, so perhaps a similar phenomenon was in play here as well. Finally, I would also say that it's worth emphasising that if any fights did occur, they did not appear to be representative of what was a generally co-operative spirit in the aftermath of the Tsunami, and some have even reported an enduring sense of identity with the region to this day- such as two British tourists who were holidaying in Khao Lak, Thailand at the time of the Tsunmai; </span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ten years on and we are still looking at life with a lot of more appreciation. We feel connected with Thailand so that is why we continue with a Thai animal charity.</span></i></b><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The tsunami wave as it approaches the beach in Thailand 26/12/2004</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">References:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">Drury, J., Cocking, C., & Reicher, S. (2009a). Every one for themselves? Understanding how crowd solidarity can arise in an emergency: An interview study of disaster survivors.</span><i><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></i><i><span lang="EN-GB">British Journal of Social Psychology 48.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Drury, J., Cocking, C., Reicher, S. (2009b). The nature of collective ‘resilience’: Survivor reactions to the July 7<sup>th</sup> (2005) London bombings.<b><i> </i></b><i>International<b></b>Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 27</i> (1) 66-95.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Solnit, R. (2008). A Paradise built in Hell: The extraordinary communities that arise in disaster. Viking, New York, US. </span></div>
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chris cockinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15788298260856102346noreply@blogger.com0