Welcome to the Identities & Collective Behaviour research group website!
We are a team of social psychologists whose research focuses on exploring the role of group processes in collective behaviour. Our aim is to improve safety at organised crowd events and in emergencies. We do this by using surveys, experiments, interviews, and observational analyses to understand how any why group processes impact behaviour, and develop interventions to facilitate safety. Our collaborations with emergency services, UK and Scottish government, computer modellers and legislative bodies for event safety mean that we apply our research to multiple contexts including organised mass events, emergency evacuations, and healthcare settings.
News
📢 We're hiring!
📩 Closing date for applications - 22nd June.
More information about the role can be found here - https://lnkd.in/eTnvkjDJ - and informal questions can also be sent via email to a.templeton@ed.ac.uk.
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📢 We're hiring!
🚀 We're recruiting a Post-Doctoral Research Associate to join the UKRI FLF project ‘Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on citizen adherence in emergencies’ - https://lnkd.in/eQbt9bw6 - for 31 months.
📩 The closing date for applications is 22nd June.
More information about the role can be found here - https://lnkd.in/eTnvkjDJ - and informal questions can also be sent via email to a.templeton@ed.ac.uk. -
We are delighted to have been awarded a 3 year renewal funding for our FLF project! This next phase started at the beginning of June 2026.
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Dr Anne Templeton presented our latest findings in her presentation ‘Communicate with the Crowd: Incorporating Social Identities into Emergency Response’ at the Engineering Resilience Forum, at the University of Liverpool.
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A new paper led by Anne Templeton - 'With us, For us, or Against us: How Group Relations Between Safety Personnel and the Public Impact Enjoyment, Felt Safety and Behaviour at Crowd Events. Social and Personality Psychology Compass Journal https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.70132
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A new paper by Kayleigh Smith - Smith, K., Widdicombe, S., Templeton, A., (2026, March 18) 'Football Clubs as Identity Leaders: Communication and Club Action on Fan-Club Relationships'. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.70247
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Dr Anne Templeton gave a talk as part of a Master Risk and Behavioural Sciences course at the Université Clermont Auvergne entitled - ‘Managing people in emergencies: Examining the evidence from crowd psychology’.
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In August Dr Anne Templeton Gave a Professional training lecture to local resilience leaders, Norwegian Civil Defence - ’Information sharing in emergencies: examining the evidence’