London bomb survivors formed solidarity with strangers within minutes of the blast.

Evidence

The London bombings took place on a transport system during rush hour, and those affected were on their way to work. Unsurprisingly, then, most of those who described witnessing or participating in supportive actions were among strangers rather than with family, friends, or other pre-existing social connections. Thus, to find solidarity behaviours in a crowd in this context is a challenge to social capital and similar approaches. There was evidence of an emergent sense of shared social identity among these strangers—richly described by our interviewees using such terms as ‘unity’, ‘together’, ‘similarity’, ‘affinity’, ‘part of a group’, ‘everybody, didn’t matter what colour or nationality’, ‘you thought these people knew each other’, and ‘teamness’[sic]. These terms were in turn linked by interviewees with emotional references to others in the group, such as ‘warmness’, ‘vague solidity’, and ‘empathy’. This sense of ‘weness’ was emergent, as the evidence suggested it arose in just that period after the bomb had exploded, and interviewees contrasted it sharply with the period before the explosions, where there was no sense of unity and they and others simply wanted to get a seat and get to their destination. — John Drury and Evangelos Ntontis, A SOCIAL IDENTITY MODEL OF COLLECTIVE…, 20

Categorization

• XREF: This is the flagship empirical case for the reader’s thesis that solidarity forms through common fate and mutual aid without an enemy. — connects to: Most survivors in this mass emergency were strangers to one another — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 68; Disaster survivors in a crowd describe intense unity with strangers. — John Drury and Chris Cocking and Steve Reicher, Everyone for themselves? A comparative…, 61; Post-disaster solidarity toward strangers stems from emergent shared social identity, not prior personal ties. — John Drury and Rupert Brown and Roberto González and Daniel Miranda, Emergent social identity and observing…, 118 (+1 more)
• ADDENDUM: Supports the reader’s independent project by showing shared threat alone (no out-group) produced binding ingroup identity — relevant framing for translating into an essay on solidarity without enemies.

Related

• London bombing survivors predominantly helped each other rather than competed. (similarity 0.90)
• Most survivors in this mass emergency were strangers to one another (similarity 0.90)
• Shared identity that enables crowd helping often emerges during an emergency rather than pre-existing. (similarity 0.88)
• Shared identity can emerge rapidly during, not before, an emergency. (similarity 0.88)
• A shared identity can emerge within a crowd only after an emergency begins. (similarity 0.87)
• Solidarity among emergency survivors stems from perceiving strangers as oneself. (similarity 0.85)
• Shared social identity is the causal variable predicting solidarity among disaster strangers. (similarity 0.85)
• Shared emergent identity from common fate explains collective support amid disasters (similarity 0.84)
• Shared fate in danger makes strangers act as one group offering help. (similarity 0.84)
• Post-disaster solidarity toward strangers stems from emergent shared social identity, not prior personal ties. (similarity 0.84)
• Pre-disaster social bonds cannot explain solidarity among strangers during crises. (similarity 0.84)
• Existing social bonds do not always explain emergency collective behaviour (similarity 0.84)
• Observing others act together drives disaster solidarity more than identification (similarity 0.83)
• Greater perceived threat of death produces more solidarity among strangers, not more competition. (similarity 0.83)
• Disaster survivors in a crowd describe intense unity with strangers. (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Disaster survivors in a crowd describe intense unity with strangers. #exemplifies (0.82) — John Drury and Chris Cocking and Steve Reicher, Everyone for themselves? A comparative…, 61
• Post-disaster solidarity toward strangers stems from emergent shared social identity, not prior personal ties. #exemplifies (0.75) — John Drury and Rupert Brown and Roberto González and Daniel Miranda, Emergent social identity and observing…, 118