Disaster Management
The concept of mass panic during a disaster is a myth, says Dr Chris Cocking
Dr Chris Cocking’s talk ‘Human behaviours during emergencies’ presented at the FPA Infozone at FIREX provided insight into how people really behave during an incident and how understanding this can be implemented into evacuation plans to ensure people’s safety.
“Studies have shown that mass panic in an emergency is very rare” said Dr Cocking, Senior Lecturer, School of Health Sciences at the University of Brighton, as he presented to a packed theatre. “If you assume a panic model you view crowds as a problem not a resource and this can create problems you are trying to avoid.”
The traditional panic model would argue that in a scary context this overrides rationality and causes people to act selfishly which means that if everyone is behaving like that, those ‘contagion behaviours will spread across a crowd.
Co-operation
Dr Cocking’s research is based on the social identity model of collective resilience (SIMCR) and dismisses predetermined views of crowd behaviour. “There is more evidence to suggest that co-operation actually prevails over selfish behaviour and that disasters bring people together”, explained Dr. Cocking.
“Disasters result in orderly, altruistic behaviour as people escape the common threat.” In general any lack of cooperation is actually due to physical constraints. “I’m not saying there is no selfish behaviour during incidents but there is a lot less than people tend to believe.
“Panic is often used as an explanation to deflect blame away from possible crowd or venue mismanagement which cast the victims as villians.”
There is also very little evidence to suggest that people panic if they are made aware of the threat which means that information should not be withheld. “This could delay evacuation and cause problems in future emergencies.”
Overall this means there should be more information not less and this needs to be conveyed in a clear way that tells people what’s going on, what the threat is and what they need to do to escape it.
It is vital to plan and improve responses as well as train staff so that they know the layout and exits inside out and can efficiently lead people to safety in the event of an incident.
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The concept of mass panic during a disaster is a myth, says Dr Chris Cocking
Dr Chris Cocking's talk 'Human behaviours during emergencies' presented at the FPA Infozone at FIREX provided insight into how people really behave during an incident and how understanding this can be implemented into evacuation plans to ensure people's safety.
Izzy Boardman
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“Studies have shown that mass panic in an emergency is very rare” said Dr Cocking, Senior Lecturer, School of Health Sciences at the University of Brighton, as he presented to a packed theatre. “If you assume a panic model you view crowds as a problem not a resource and this can create problems you are trying to avoid.”
Interesting, but certainly not the case that I witnessed with the Barcelona attack last year, panic, hysteria & mass exodus….
Really interesting, more should come forward to support his findings if there is any..
See previous comment, there is plenty of evidence if you are prepared to look for it. Don’t expect much in such a small article as this
I think you need to do a bit more research in Cocking and John Drury’s work in this field and may explain the reactions you witnessed
Unfortunately such a short article doesn’t convey the important work the likes of Cocking, Drury and G.K Still do in this field. If you have safety responsibility for an area that could be classed as “crowded space” then I would recommend doing some research and/or under taking some crowd safety training