Emergency crowds can generate new social bonds among strangers.
Evidence
What is needed is a model of mass emergent sociality, that is social bonds that can arise within a crowd of strangers. In short, while the ‘mass panic’ approach emphasizes the dissolution of social bonds, and normative and affiliation approaches stress their maintenance, we also need to look at the possibility of the creation of such bonds. — John Drury and Chris Cocking and Steve Reicher, Everyone for themselves? A comparative…, 13
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces and names the concept of ‘mass emergent sociality’ as a third explanatory frame beyond dissolution or maintenance of bonds.
- XREF: Echoes Durkheim’s collective effervescence and emergent-norm theory; the idea of solidarity forming among strangers resonates with accounts of communal action in the 9/11 boat lift and other disasters. — connects to: Shared fate in danger makes strangers act as one group offering help. — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 47; A shared identity can emerge within a crowd only after an emergency begins. — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 61; Most survivors in this mass emergency were strangers to one another — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 68 (+12 more)
- QUESTION: What conditions turn strangers in an emergency into affiliates? The model is proposed but the mechanisms for bond-creation remain underspecified.
- SEED: A think-piece on disaster solidarity: why crowds of strangers so often help rather than trample, contradicting the mass-panic stereotype in media reporting.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John Drury and Chris Cocking and Steve Reicher, Everyone for themselves? A comparative…, 13
Related
- Existing social bonds do not always explain emergency collective behaviour (similarity 0.92)
- Disasters forge new social bonds via shared external threat. (similarity 0.90)
- Pre-disaster social bonds cannot explain solidarity among strangers during crises. (similarity 0.89)
- Shared identity that enables crowd helping often emerges during an emergency rather than pre-existing. (similarity 0.89)
- Shared fate in danger makes strangers act as one group offering help. (similarity 0.89)
- Shared identity can emerge rapidly during, not before, an emergency. (similarity 0.88)
- Shared danger makes people feel close to strangers and motivates mutual help. (similarity 0.88)
- Post-disaster solidarity toward strangers stems from emergent shared social identity, not prior personal ties. (similarity 0.87)
- A shared identity can emerge within a crowd only after an emergency begins. (similarity 0.87)
- Disaster survivors in a crowd describe intense unity with strangers. (similarity 0.87)
- Shared danger of death heightens unity among strangers in an emergency. (similarity 0.86)
- Social support in disasters ranges from individual acts to collective cooperation. (similarity 0.86)
- Solidarity among emergency survivors stems from perceiving strangers as oneself. (similarity 0.86)
- Shared emergent identity from common fate explains collective support amid disasters (similarity 0.86)
- Most survivors in this mass emergency were strangers to one another (similarity 0.85)
Broader Connections
- Disasters forge new social bonds via shared external threat.
#corroborates(0.90) — John Drury and Chris Cocking and Steve Reicher, Everyone for themselves? A comparative…, 16 - Shared danger of death heightens unity among strangers in an emergency.
#corroborates(0.85) — John Drury and Chris Cocking and Steve Reicher, Everyone for themselves? A comparative…, 104 - Disaster survivors in a crowd describe intense unity with strangers.
#exemplifies(0.85) — John Drury and Chris Cocking and Steve Reicher, Everyone for themselves? A comparative…, 61 - Shared fate converts a stranger crowd into a functioning group.
#qualifies(0.80)