The new psychology of group influence, from yawning to rioting
How and why do behaviours spread from person to person? We often refer to yawning and emotions as ‘contagious’, but what does this mean? How do complex social behaviours like urban riots spread? If it is via ‘contagion’, why don’t more people join in?
In this presentation event, social psychologists from Sussex, Keele and St Andrews Universities showcase the latest scientific research on the spread of behaviour. We present new interactive experiments on simple behavioural influence, demonstrating that ‘who we are’ – our social identity – determines whether others influence us or not. We also present new groundbreaking research on the social psychology of the 2011 riots. Why did some places in England riot but others did not? Why did some places join in before others? In order to understand the spread of these kinds of events, we first need to understand what happened and when, using multiple data sources (archives, crime data, social media, and videos). Then we need to examine how participants experienced the events and their motivations, using a combination of interviews and qualitative analysis. Together these methods allow us to see the role of social identity processes in riot spread, similar to those operating in leadership, conformity and minority influence.
This educational event will be relevant to anyone studying or interested in psychology, behaviour, criminology, history, and public unrest/disorder.
‘A’ level Psychology syllabus links:
AQA: 3.1.1 Social influence, 3.3.8 Aggression
Edexel: 1. Social psychology: 1.1.4 Social identity theory; 1.4 Crowd behaviour, rioting
OCR: Social psychology
Where and when?
Location: British Library Knowledge Centre Theatre
Date: Saturday 2ndMarch 2019
Time: 2-4pm
You can read the interim report here.