Panic and the Breakdown of Social Order: Popular Myth, Social Theory, Empirical Evidence

Johnson, Norris R.

doi:10.1080/00380237.1987.10570950

Cited by 116 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Although the normative approach (e.g., Johnson, 1987aJohnson, , 1987b clearly transcends the mass panic model by pointing to the predominance of sociality even within life-threatening mass emergency crowds, it collapses back into the mass panic model when it claims that competitive behavior increases at times of greatest urgency (Johnson et al, 1994;cf. Quarantelli, 1957).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Arguably, therefore, it is outside of experimental social psychology that most of the contributions to the field have been made in recent years. In particular, the normative approach, which stresses the continuity between everyday rule-governed behavior and that in emergency situations (Johnson, 1987a(Johnson, , 1987b(Johnson, , 1988, and affiliation theory (Mawson, 2005;Sime, 1983), which emphasizes the importance of preexisting interpersonal ties in limiting panic responses, represent the current state of theory in this area (Aguirre, 2005). For mainstream social psychology, therefore, the topic of mass evacuation behavior represents a theoretical lacuna that needs to be addressed.…”

Section: Methodological Problems and "Solutions"mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cooperation versus competition in a mass emergency evacuation: A new laboratory simulation and a new theoretical model

Drury

Cocking

Reicher

et al. 2009

Behavior Research Methods

139

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Virtual reality (VR) technology has been argued to be useful in a number of domains of psychological research. This article reports three studies applying this technology for the first time to the field of emergency evacuation behavior, in order to test a new model of such behavior based on the social identity approach.Early research on mass evacuation behavior relied on anecdotal evidence and data from the military (e.g., Strauss, 1944). In the 1950s and 1960s, however, the introduction of new laboratory experimental techniques helped in the development of important theoretical advances. Thus, for example, Mintz's (1951) classic simulation study used a bottle containing several corks on strings held by participants, representing the potential for exit jamming that would take place if every individual tried to evacuate simultaneously. Mintz suggested that ineffectual escape in an evacuating crowd is due to individual calculation of costs and benefits, rather than to a contagious outburst of mass irrationality, as assumed by the early mass panic models (e.g., McDougall, 1920; ANDREW HARDWICK University of Sussex, Brighton, England DANIELLE GRAHAM St. Andrews University, Fife, Scotland AND PAUL LANGSTON University of Nottingham, Nottingham, EnglandVirtual reality technology is argued to be suitable to the simulation study of mass evacuation behavior, because of the practical and ethical constraints in researching this field. This article describes three studies in which a new virtual reality paradigm was used, in which participants had to escape from a burning underground rail station. Study 1 was carried out in an immersion laboratory and demonstrated that collective identification in the crowd was enhanced by the (shared) threat embodied in emergency itself. In Study 2, high-identification participants were more helpful and pushed less than did low-identification participants. In Study 3, identification and group size were experimentally manipulated, and similar results were obtained. These results support a hypothesis according to which (emergent) collective identity motivates solidarity with strangers. It is concluded that the virtual reality technology developed here represents a promising start, although more can be done to embed it in a traditional psychology laboratory setting.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodological Problems and "Solutions"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooperation versus competition in a mass emergency evacuation: A new laboratory simulation and a new theoretical model

Drury

Cocking

Reicher

et al. 2009

Behavior Research Methods

139

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Panic is considered to be irrational behavior, where people adopt a selfish attitude (Keating, 1982). Despite the term's popularity in media, since the 70s social scientists have had a consensus that panic rarely occurs (Keating, 1982, Sime, 1980, Johnson, 1987, Quarantelli, 2002. On the contrary, people appear to apply rational decision making in relation to their understanding of the situation (Proulx, 2001).…”

Section: Human Behavior In Crowdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patient and impatient pedestrians in a spatial game for egress congestion

et al. 2013

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In Today's built environment, it is common that large numbers of people gather in buildings. Also evacuations of such large crowds take place frequently all over the world. Standard safety requirements for buildings cannot always ensure safe evacuation of people in such situations, and thus, computational evacuation simulations have become a common practice in building design. The currently available simulation models are able to produce quite realistic movement and egress flows. However, there has not been much focus on modeling evacuees' behavior and decision making, which may significantly affect the outcome of evacuations.This thesis develops new modeling methods to describe the behavior of pedestrians in evacuation situations. The developed models are implemented in a state-of-the-art simulation software that combines evacuation simulation with fire simulation. The models apply game theory, which is the mathematical framework for describing strategic interaction between individuals.A novel game theoretic model for occupants' exit route selection is proposed. It describes how evacuees react to the surroundings and other evacuees' actions when deciding which exit to use. Another presented model uses spatial game theory to describe pedestrian behavior and interaction in threatening and congested situations at egress route bottlenecks. The model shows that reasonable behavior by pedestrians may lead to pushing and slow down the egress flow. In addition, a new physical approach for modeling pedestrian counterflow is given.The thesis also gives the results of an experimental study on pedestrian behavior and decision making in evacuations. It is observed that, even in simple experimental settings, people are often unable to select the fastest egress route. Another interesting finding is that the participants' attempts to cooperate may lead to slower evacuation.The developed models enable building more realistic tools for evacuation simulation, which help to better assess the safety of different venues. Also, the game theoretic models improve the understanding of how crowd-level movement and phenomena emerge from the behavior and decisions of individual crowd members. The experimental results presented in the thesis provide new insights into human behavior in evacuation situations. The results of the experiments can also be used to validate computational simulation models.Keywords evacuation, simulation, game theory, experiment, crowd, behavior Tiivistelmä Nykyään on yleistä, että suuria ihmismääriä joudutaan evakuoimaan rakennuksista. Pelkkä rakennusmääräysten noudattaminen ei aina takaa evakuoinnin turvallisuutta, joten evakuoinnin tietokonesimulaatiot ovat yleistyneet rakennusten suunnittelussa. Olemassa olevat simulaatiomallit kuvaavat ihmisjoukkojen liikkumista varsin realistisesti. Sen sijaan ihmisten käyttäytymisen ja päätöksenteon mallinnus ei ole yhtä kehittynyttä, huolimatta näiden tekijöiden merkittävästä vaikutuksesta evakuointien lopputuloksiin.Väitöskirjassa kehitetään menetelmiä evakuoitavien...

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“…From these data, it would appear that the scenes of panic described in the classic literature on catastrophes were relatively few. Panic reactions are the result of a complex chain of interactions when facing a situation perceived as constituting an imminent 140 threat to one's life, but in general such reactions are rare, and cooperative, coordinated behavior is predominant (Johnson, 1987). In this case, the main reason why panic did not ensue might have been because most people did not have a clear or direct perception of the risk their lives were under-the possibility of escape predominated over that of being trapped.…”

Section: Stage 1 Aggression/act Of Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Psychosocial Analysis of the Collective Processes in the United States After September 11

Rodríguez‐Carballeira

Javaloy

2005

Conflict Management and Peace Science

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Panic and the Breakdown of Social Order: Popular Myth, Social Theory, Empirical Evidence

Cited by 116 publications

References 7 publications

Cooperation versus competition in a mass emergency evacuation: A new laboratory simulation and a new theoretical model

Cooperation versus competition in a mass emergency evacuation: A new laboratory simulation and a new theoretical model

Patient and impatient pedestrians in a spatial game for egress congestion

Psychosocial Analysis of the Collective Processes in the United States After September 11

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