Crowd ‘panic’ is rarely the true cause of disaster deaths

Evidence

Even in cases where there is pushing and shoving, however, the responsibility of the crowd for fatalities in emergencies has been overstated. Two of the most widely cited emergencies that ended in tragedy are the fire at Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre in 1903, in which nearly 600 people died, and the Cocoanut Grove theatre fire of 1942, where nearly 500 people died. In both cases, a number of sources have claimed that the deaths were due primarily to the escape behaviour of the crowd (e.g., Forsyth, 1999). However, Chertkoffand Kushigian’s (1999) systematic re-examination of both events concluded that in neither case was the verdict “death by mass panic” justified. In the Cocoanut Grove theatre fire, for example, while some people were knocked aside and stepped on in the rush to try to get out, most people died not from the behaviour of others, but from fumes and a fireball as a result of being trapped inside a building with inadequate exits. — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 35

Categorization

• SEED: The re-examination of Iroquois and Cocoanut Grove could seed a piece on how structural failures get blamed on panicking crowds.
• XREF: connects to: Empirical studies find crowd panic is rare even under extreme threat. — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 30; Crowds during disasters are a resource for support, not a panic problem. — John Drury and Rupert Brown and Roberto González and Daniel Miranda, Emergent social identity and observing…, 135; Mass panic is rare even under conditions theorized to produce it — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 30 (+5 more)

Related

• Mass emergency behaviour stems from social identity, not panic or irrationality (similarity 0.87)
• Crowds during disasters are a resource for support, not a panic problem. (similarity 0.85)
• Empirical studies find crowd panic is rare even under extreme threat. (similarity 0.85)
• Even in bad evacuations panic stays confined to a small fraction (similarity 0.84)
• Mass panic is rare even under conditions theorized to produce it (similarity 0.83)
• Early mass-panic theory saw crowds as dissolving social bonds into competitive fear via contagion. (similarity 0.82)
• Emergencies typically produce mutual aid and orderliness rather than competitive panic. (similarity 0.81)
• People act collectively in emergencies despite being conditioned toward individual self-interest. (similarity 0.81)
• A shared identity can emerge within a crowd only after an emergency begins. (similarity 0.80)
• Shared identity that enables crowd helping often emerges during an emergency rather than pre-existing. (similarity 0.80)
• Shared identity turns crowds from irrational mobs into solidarity-based adaptive resources (similarity 0.80)
• Mutual helping, not selfish flight, is the dominant emergency behaviour (similarity 0.80)
• Shared fate in danger makes strangers act as one group offering help. (similarity 0.80)
• The psychological crowd is an adaptive survival resource in emergencies (similarity 0.79)
• Shared social identity produces adaptive psychosocial resilience that aids group survival in emergencies. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Empirical studies find crowd panic is rare even under extreme threat. #corroborates (0.95) — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 30
• Mass panic is rare even under conditions theorized to produce it #corroborates (0.95) — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 30
• Crowds during disasters are a resource for support, not a panic problem. #corroborates (0.90) — John Drury and Rupert Brown and Roberto González and Daniel Miranda, Emergent social identity and observing…, 135
• Even in bad evacuations panic stays confined to a small fraction #corroborates (0.90) — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 34
• Mass emergency behaviour stems from social identity, not panic or irrationality #corroborates (0.90) — John Drury and Chris Cocking and Steve Reicher, Everyone for themselves? A comparative…, 122
• The psychological crowd is an adaptive survival resource in emergencies #expands (0.85) — John Drury and Chris Cocking and Steve Reicher, Everyone for themselves? A comparative…, 126
• A 250,000-person beach event escaped serious casualties despite crowding chaos. #exemplifies (0.80) — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 140
• Pre-disaster social bonds cannot explain solidarity among strangers during crises. #qualifies (0.75) — John Drury and Evangelos Ntontis, A SOCIAL IDENTITY MODEL OF COLLECTIVE…, 15