Panic at "The Who Concert Stampede": An Empirical Assessment

Johnson, Norris R.

doi:10.1525/sp.1987.34.4.03a00040

Cited by 63 publications

(82 citation statements)

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“…The "magnetizing effect" of the music on a crowd described as barbarians who "stomped 11 persons to death [after] having numbed their brains on weeds, chemicals, and Southern Comfort" (Royko, cited in N.R. Johnson, 1987b) was seen as yet a further cause. To the media, the general public, and some scholars, the elements of an entry panic were plainly present.…”

Section: Panicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Psychology of Sport

Russell

1993

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Section: Panicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Psychology of Sport

Russell

1993

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“…a transition from individual to mass psychology, in which individuals transfer control over their actions to others [50], leading to conformity [51]. Such a herding behaviour often leads to bad overall results like dangerous overcrowding and slower escape [50,52]. The various socio-psychological theories for this contagion assume hypnotic effects, rapport, mutual excitation of a primordial instinct, circular reactions, social facilitation [53].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling human perception processes in pedestrian dynamics: a hybrid approach

Colombi

Scianna

2017

R. Soc. open sci.

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In this paper, we present a hybrid mathematical model describing crowd dynamics. More specifically, our approach is based on the well-established Helbing-like discrete model, where each pedestrian is individually represented as a dimensionless point and set to move in order to reach a target destination, with deviations deriving from both physical and social forces. In particular, physical forces account for interpersonal collisions, whereas social components include the individual desire to remain sufficiently far from other walkers (the so-called territorial effect). In this respect, the repulsive behaviour of pedestrians is here set to be different from traditional Helbing-like methods, as it is assumed to be largely determined by how they perceive the presence and the position of neighbouring individuals, i.e. either objectively as pointwise/localized entities or subjectively as spatially distributed masses. The resulting modelling environment is then applied to specific scenarios, that first reproduce a real-world experiment, specifically designed to derive our model hypothesis. Sets of numerical realizations are also run to analyse in more details the pedestrian paths resulting from different types of perception of small groups of static individuals. Finally, analytical investigations formalize and validate from a mathematical point of view selected simulation outcomes.

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“…Certainly, logistically there is a difference, in that responders and decontamination shower tents will be fewer relative to members of the public, and the time taken to decontaminate all those affected will be longer. However, much evidence shows that members of the public continue to behave in an orderly way, and do not overreact, during mass emergencies and disasters (Quarantelli, 1954;Johnson, 1987), including those involving terrorist attacks (Drury et al, 2009).…”

Section: Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over 50 years of research on behaviour in emergencies and disasters has problematised the notion of "mass panic" (Fritz and Williams, 1957;Quarantelli, 1954Quarantelli, , 2001Sime, 1990) and, on the contrary, has suggested that cooperation and order are the norm during such events (Aguirre et al, 1998;Drury et al, 2009;Johnson, 1987). Despite this, a recent analysis revealed that common myths about disasters, such as inherent panic and public disorder, are present in the guidance for emergency responders (Carter et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergency responders’ experiences of and expectations regarding decontamination

Carter

Drury

Rubin

et al. 2014

International Journal of Emergency Services

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Purpose -There is an assumption in emergency planning that the public will "panic" or refuse to comply in the event of mass decontamination. This assumption has serious implications for how the public will be managed. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach -The authors carried out semi-structured interviews with 13 emergency responders, six of whom had experience of incidents involving decontamination. The authors asked them, first, about their experiences of these events and, second, about their expectations for decontamination involving a large crowd. The aim was to explore the extent to which responders perceived non-compliance and anxiety as (crowd) problems during decontamination, and if so, how they felt that they could be addressed. Findings -Responders with experience of decontamination perceived non-compliance and excessive anxiety to be rare, and suggested that orderly behaviour was more common. However, the majority of emergency responders with no experience of decontamination said they expected panic and non-compliance. They therefore emphasised the importance of "controlling", rather than communicating with, the public.Research limitations/implications -The authors argue that "control"-based emergency management strategies can impact negatively on the relationship between the public and responders, and hence hinder effective management of an incident. It would therefore be beneficial to provide training for emergency responders on likely public behaviour during incidents involving decontamination. Originality/value -This research extends previous research by facilitating a detailed understanding of emergency responders' experiences and perceptions of managing incidents involving decontamination, and showing how these experiences and perceptions can affect the way in which such incidents are managed.

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Panic at "The Who Concert Stampede": An Empirical Assessment

Cited by 63 publications

References 0 publications

The Social Psychology of Sport

The Social Psychology of Sport

Modelling human perception processes in pedestrian dynamics: a hybrid approach

Emergency responders’ experiences of and expectations regarding decontamination

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