Early mass-panic theory saw crowds as dissolving social bonds into competitive fear via contagion.

Evidence

The scientific study of mass emergency behaviour was first prompted by a concern in the military that soldiers were losing discipline when under attack by the enemy (e.g., Schultz, 1965; Strauss, 1944). These early explanations drew upon the crowd psychology of Gustave Le Bon (1895/1965) to explain what they saw as the delusionary beliefs, excessive emotion, and uncontrolled fleeing behaviour in these troops (Bendersky, 2007). On the one hand, such “mass panic” in a crowd was understood as the dissolution of existing social bonds (Freud, 1921/1985); when people were overcome by fear, it was argued, individualistic (competitive) flight impulses supersede socialised group norms (Quarantelli, 1954, 1957). On the other hand, the concept of “contagion” was employed by a number of these theorists to explain how these excessive fears and uncontrolled behaviours became shared, with crowds being considered a particularly susceptible channel for such uncritical transmission processes (e.g., McDougall, 1920; Ross, 1908). — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 25

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the classical ‘mass panic’ and ‘contagion’ frameworks against which the social-identity account is positioned.
• XREF: Connects to the historical roots the paper later overturns — useful baseline for understanding the social identity critique. — connects to: Witnessing identity-mates panic or flee can spread that behaviour through crowds — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 17; Empirical studies find crowd panic is rare even under extreme threat. — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 30; Mass panic is rare even under conditions theorized to produce it — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 30
• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 25

Related

• Empirical studies find crowd panic is rare even under extreme threat. (similarity 0.89)
• Witnessing identity-mates panic or flee can spread that behaviour through crowds (similarity 0.86)
• Mass emergency behaviour stems from social identity, not panic or irrationality (similarity 0.86)
• Mass panic is rare even under conditions theorized to produce it (similarity 0.86)
• Mass panic language mostly labels fear, not actual selfish behaviour. (similarity 0.83)
• Crowd ‘panic’ is rarely the true cause of disaster deaths (similarity 0.82)
• Even in bad evacuations panic stays confined to a small fraction (similarity 0.81)
• Social norms, not panic, structure emergency behaviour (similarity 0.79)
• Shared identity turns crowds from irrational mobs into solidarity-based adaptive resources (similarity 0.78)
• Shared identity that enables crowd helping often emerges during an emergency rather than pre-existing. (similarity 0.78)
• Existing social bonds do not always explain emergency collective behaviour (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Witnessing identity-mates panic or flee can spread that behaviour through crowds #exemplifies (0.85) — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 17
• Empirical studies find crowd panic is rare even under extreme threat. #contradicts (0.80) — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 30