Mass panic

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The term mass panic describes an accident with a large number of people involved in a small area, in which the spatial confinement is one of the causes of the course of the accident. He suggests that a mass of people panic at major events or damaging events and that there are uncontrolled escape movements. A mass panic can be caused by dangerous external circumstances (such as a fire or the collapse of a building) or the behavior of individuals within a crowd. The terms mass accident , mass disaster and mass panic are often used synonymously in the media. Mass panic occurs only in the course of a very small proportion of mass disasters.

Dirk Helbing , Professor of Sociology, called the term mass panic “often misleading”, a disaster usually does not happen “because people fall into a state of psychological panic”. Victims are rather "the result of a physical, not a psychological effect." Thus, one would research the term "crowd disaster" or mass misfortune prefer.

In a figurative sense, there are also mass panics in the form of avalanches of sales on the stock markets or the mass liquidation of bank deposits (see e.g. Panic of 1907 ).

With herd animals such as cattle or antelopes there is the phenomenon of the stampede , which in its dynamics also has features of mass panic. However, the interpretation of stampedes as protective behavior adapted from an evolutionary point of view in the presence of predators cannot be transferred to humans.

Emotional contagion

A theoretical approach explains “mass panics ” by “ feeling contagion ” as the spread of individual panic. A distinction is made between panic reactions in open systems, closed systems or in bottleneck situations. The latter is the most dangerous reaction, as this is where the agitation of those affected is greatest. There are escape routes in open systems; In closed systems such as mines, either the numbers or the density of people are low, so it is a question of individual panic.

Criticism of the concept of "mass panic"

The impression that panic could be triggered simply by the gathering of large numbers of people in one place has not been empirically confirmed: Sime criticizes the fact that the term panic is used for behaviors that are rational from the subjective perspective and only from an external perspective Consideration, with additional information that was not available to the person concerned in the situation, appears to be irrational. The idea of ​​a “mass soul” ( Gustave Le Bon : Psychology of the Masses , 1895 or Sigmund Freud : Mass Psychology and Ego Analysis , 1921) is controversial.

Based on the evaluation of computer simulations, the US geographer Paul Torrens called the idea of ​​the “hysterical crowd” a “myth”. The crowd can calm down individual trouble spots very effectively. The majority should just not try to intervene, but should rather "calmly flow around a" disturbing "group - in such behavior, the wisdom of the masses is shown. Unfavorable developments in crowds would usually begin with individuals misinterpreting the body language of their neighbors and people in front and behaving accordingly. Like an epidemic, its restless behavior first spreads to small groups and finally to the large masses, which in the event of accidents leads to the collapse of the “ collective intelligence ”.

However, according to Torrens, a model could “predict disaster scenarios with only approximate accuracy”, rather preventive measures would have to be carried out so that groups of people do not lose their bearings. In particular, signs that appeal to the intuitive perception of passers-by are suitable.

Empirical research

Crowds of pilgrims in Sabarimala

The reaction of people in dangerous situations was empirically investigated. It turns out that most people are neither selfish nor rash. Only about one percent of all people tend to panic, irrational behavior in emergency situations. After analyzing 127 cases, Michael Schreckenberg ruled out panic as the cause of disasters. Rather, physical processes are the cause, although instincts predominate and “the organism is only geared towards maintaining its life”, but refugees follow predictable rules. For every ten people there is roughly one leader who is a leading figure. Another ten percent, “the sensitive ones”, start running at the slightest danger. The remaining 80 percent are those who “blindly” followed the crowd. In addition, people fleeing in a crowd that suddenly came to a standstill ran in a different direction almost exactly after 15 seconds.

In the past, “mass panics” with high numbers of victims occurred above all in football stadiums, at major religious events or during fires in discos and nightclubs. They develop relatively rarely and under special conditions. In addition to the danger of toxic smoke gases, there are also dangers of asphyxia due to compression of the thorax , crushing or “trampling”. Helbing et al. (2000) define the following characteristic processes in a "mass panic": As a result of panic, people move significantly faster than in normal situations, which leads to pushing and bumping and, in particular, to uncoordinated behavior in narrow spaces. People are trapped by the damming effect, the pressure can be up to 4450 N / m², which under certain circumstances can lead to masonry collapsing. Injured people and those lying on the ground also represent a further obstacle for the refugees, through the " herd instinct ( mass psychology )" those affected orient themselves to the behavior of the others. Other exits or escape routes can easily be overlooked. People flow analyzes also showed that around 80 percent of all people instinctively choose the familiar route as an escape route that they came before in an emergency - regardless of whether it is longer or riskier than the closest (marked) but unknown escape route. For this reason, entrance areas should be dimensioned appropriately large for events, or several entrances designed in advance, as is the case, for example, with football stadiums.

Prevention

Heavy crowds or catastrophes with many people involved can trigger “mass panic”, which is accompanied by uncontrolled fear and massive escape movements. In such a situation there are few options for intervention. The greatest possibilities of influence exist in the development phase or before. Targeted, clear, frequent, regular and structured requests and information are important. This can e.g. B. be done through loudspeaker announcements or through processes that demonstrate serenity (e.g. continuation of the event such as a football game). Attention-grabbing interventions (e.g. a high-pitched whistle) or the setting of simple tasks can also create a panic crowd (e.g. "Watch out for children!").

It is crucial to (re) establish communication and to activate the individual's self-competence. Those responsible should appear objective and sober in a mass panic. Your information should be clear, concise, and truthful. With the interventions described, it could be possible to dampen the agitation of those affected. Dealing with possible disasters (simulation) prepares those responsible to react to sudden events.

A call to a crowd should include four points in order to achieve the highest possible degree of compliance:

  • Attention signal
  • Hazard warning
  • Action instruction
  • Explanation of the consequences

Clarke gives a number of individual recommendations for action.

See also

literature

  • Thomas Brudermann: mass psychology. Psychological contagion, collective dynamics, simulation models . Springer Verlag, Vienna / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-211-99760-4 .
  • Gerd Motzke : Traffic safety in soccer stadiums: demands of panic research at the interface between building regulations and private law with effects on planning . In: New Journal for Building Law and Procurement Law , Vol. 5, 2004, 6, pp. 297–303
  • FG Pajonk u. a .: Mass phenomena in major disasters - panic as a rare manifestation . In: Der Notarzt , 2002, 18, pp. 146–151.
  • Fritz Stiebitz: Police operations in football stadiums . 1st edition. German Police Publishing House, Hilden / Rhld. 1979, ISBN 3-8011-0100-2 , 94 pp.

Web links

Wiktionary: Mass panic  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d L. Clarke: Panic: Myth or Reality? ( Memento of February 17, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Contexts Magazine.
  2. ↑ What are crowd dynamics? Jetzt.de, July 22, 2011
  3. ↑ B. de Gelder, J. Snyder, D. Greve, G. Gerard, N. Hadjikhani: Fear fosters flight: A mechanism for fear contagion when perceiving emotion expressed by a whole body Proc . In: Natl. Acad. Sci. , 2004, 101, pp. 16701-16706.
  4. ↑ Frank Lasogga, Bernd Gasch: Emergency Psychology: Textbook for Practice . Springer, Berlin 2007, p. 439 in the Google book search.
  5. ↑ Thomas Luiz, Christian K. Lackner, Hanno Peter, Jörg Schmidt: Medical Hazard Defense: Disaster Medicine and Crisis Management in Civil Protection . Elsevier, Munich, p. 263 in the Google book search.
  6. ^ J. Sime: The concept of panic . In: D. Canter (Ed.): Fires and Human Behavior . 1981
  7. ^ Peter R. Hofstätter : Group dynamics : Critique of the mass psychology . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1990. Above all, Le Bon's theory of deindividuation is criticized here.
  8. ^ EL Quarantelli: The Sociology of Panic . ( Memento of May 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) In: Smelser, Baltes (Ed.): International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences . 2001.
  9. ↑ Frank Thadeusz: Wisdom of the crowd . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 2009, p. 142 ( online ).
  10. ↑ a b c Andreas Hussak: Myth mass panic. In: COMMUNAL. Austrian Association of Municipalities, July 2018, accessed on December 20, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Gerald Traufetter: Orderly in the downfall . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41 , 2008, p. 166 ( online ).
  12. ↑ Dirk Helbing , Illes Farkas, Tamas Vicsek: Simulating dynamical features of escape panic . In: Nature , Jg. 407, H. 6803, pp. 487-490 (2000/09/28 / print).
  13. ↑ Behavior in case of mass panic according to FG Pajonk u. a .: Mass phenomena in major disasters - panic as a rare manifestation . In: Der Notarzt , 2002, 18, pp. 146–151.
  14. ^ Larry P. Perkins, Crowd Safety and Survival . Lulu Press, Morrisville NC 2004.
  15. ↑ Further information can be found at crowdsafe.com ( Memento from June 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). An online journal on the subject is available at crowdsafetymanagement.co.uk .