Madness of the crowd: Understanding mass behaviors through a multidisciplinary lens

Abstract

Mass or crowd behaviors refer to those that occur at a group level and suggest that crowds behave differently to individuals. Mass behaviors are typically triggered by a significant societal event. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has provided many tangible examples of crowd behaviors that have been observed globally, suggesting possible common underlying drivers. It is important to provide a deeper understanding of such behaviors to develop mitigation strategies for future population-level challenges. To gain deeper insight into a variety of crowd behaviors, we perform a conceptual analysis of crowd behaviors using three detailed case studies covering observable behavior (panic buying and health protective actions) and mass beliefs (conspiracy theories) that have resulted or shifted throughout the pandemic. The aim of this review was to explored key triggers, psychological drivers, and possible mitigation strategies through a mixture of theory and published literature. Finally, we create experimental mathematical models to support each case study and to illustrate the effects of manipulating key behavioral factors. Overall, our analyses identified several commonalties across the case studies and revealed the importance of Social Identity Theory and concepts of trust, social connection, and stress.

A behaviour and disease transmission model: incorporating the Health Belief Model for human behaviour into a simple transmission model

“…Many psychological models focus on mediating and moderating effects that partially explain a key behaviour, rather than easily translatable models. Finally, when human behaviour models are considered, data availability around how and why humans perform behaviours in response to an epidemic are scarce [9,10]; more work is needed to conceptualize and explain mass behaviours to understand those critical in response to an epidemic (see Brindal et al [11]).…”

“…Finally, when human behaviour models are considered, data availability around how and why humans perform behaviours in response to an epidemic are scarce [9,10]; more work is needed to conceptualize and explain mass behaviours to understand those critical in response to an epidemic (see Brindal et al . [11]).…”