Blog Archives

There are no rioters in Hong Kong

By Patricio Saavedra Morales. In June this year, thousands of Hongkongers hit the streets to protest against a controversial extradition bill promoted by the Chief Executive of the former British colony, Carrie Lam. During those days, Hongkongers, as well as

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Can protesting be good for you?

By Sara Vestergren. We often hear about the difficulties and negative consequences of protesting and activism, and these negative consequences might be the reason why you are on this page in the first place. Some protest related experiences can leave

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How participation in collective action can change lives, and how those changes endure over time

By Sara Vestergren and John Drury. Most of us have some experience of collective action, even if it is only walking past a rally on our way to work, or signing a petition. However, our involvement might extend the casual everyday

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What is a crowd? Implications for computer simulation

By Anne Templeton and John Drury. What is a crowd? The answer to this question has implications for planning, crowd safety management, and computer simulation of people movement. A common definition of a crowd is a large group of people

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Responding to people’s emotional needs in an emergency

By John Drury.  In my work teaching crowd psychology to professionals in the live events industry, the topic they find most interesting is that of mass emergencies. In the first place, they want to know how crowds of people behave

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The silent march for Grenfell: Context of a disaster

By Selin Tekin Guven and Sanjeedah Choudhury. On 14th June 2017, a fire broke out at the Grenfell Tower block in North Kensington, causing at least 71 deaths. The origin of the fire was accidental; however, the astonishing speed at

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What happens after a disaster?

By John Drury and Selin Tekinguven. One of the things that sometimes happens after a disaster is that the people affected by it campaign. They campaign about the disaster itself, about the social conditions that led to the disaster, and

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Why do bystanders justify the use of violence by protesters?

By Patricio Saavedra Morales. Recently, the UN Human Rights Office published an extensive report about human rights violations and abuses during protests occurring in Venezuela from 1st of April to 31st July 2017.  In the document, UN officers accused the

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علم النفس الاجتماعي في الحج

علم النفس الاجتماعي في الحج بمكة المكرمة في هذا الأسبوع من كل عام يقام الحج الذي يعدّ من أكبر فعاليات الحشود في العالم (الإحصائيات الرسمة للعام الماضي ذكرت تواجد ١,٨٦٢,٩٠٩ حاج). يوصف الحج بأنه أكبر تجمّع عالمي كون المسلمين يأتون

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The social psychology of the Hajj

By John Drury, with help from Sanjeedah Choudhury. This week, the annual Hajj takes place in Mecca (Makkah) and the other holy places nearby. This Muslim pilgrimage is one of the world’s largest crowd events – the official figure for

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