Mass panic is rare even under conditions theorized to produce it

Evidence

The third problem is that many studies of emergencies that meet all the conditions for crowd panic (threat, a crowd, and only limited escape), find little evidence for it. These include Janis’s (1951) study of behavioural reactions to the Hiroshima bombing, and Sheppard et al.’s (2006) analysis of the 1995 Sarin attack in Tokyo, the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, anthrax incidents in the USA in 2001, the July 7th London bombings, and chemical weapons attacks during World War I. Though mass panic has been called a “disaster myth” by sociologists (e.g., Wenger, Dykes, Sebok, & Neff, 1975), these studies reporting an absence of panic do not in themselves falsify the mass panic concept, of course; like Popper’s (1959) example of the white swan, there may still be counter-examples. A review of public responses to bombing raids during World War II by Jones, Woolven, Durodié, and Wessely (2006) concludes that mass panic is “rare” and where it occurs is only short-lived. — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 30

Categorization

• SHARE: The range of contexts — Hiroshima, Tokyo Sarin, 9/11, anthrax, WWI gas, WWII bombing — is a strong evidence sweep for anyone writing up the panic-as-myth position.
• XREF: connects to: Crowd ‘panic’ is rarely the true cause of disaster deaths — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 35; Empirical studies find crowd panic is rare even under extreme threat. — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 30; Early mass-panic theory saw crowds as dissolving social bonds into competitive fear via contagion. — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 25 (+2 more)

Related

• Empirical studies find crowd panic is rare even under extreme threat. (similarity 0.96)
• Early mass-panic theory saw crowds as dissolving social bonds into competitive fear via contagion. (similarity 0.86)
• Even in bad evacuations panic stays confined to a small fraction (similarity 0.85)
• Mass emergency behaviour stems from social identity, not panic or irrationality (similarity 0.85)
• Mass panic language mostly labels fear, not actual selfish behaviour. (similarity 0.84)
• Crowd ‘panic’ is rarely the true cause of disaster deaths (similarity 0.83)

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
• Early mass-panic theory saw crowds as dissolving social bonds into competitive fear via contagion. #responds-to (0.85) — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 25
• Atomized societies become dangerously volatile during crises. #qualifies (0.72) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 240