Modelling Collective Behaviour

Multi-disciplinary collaborations within academia and co-production with industry are core approaches to achieving impact in this area.

To ensure our models are high-calibre and that we spread the benefits of the social identity approach to multiple disciplines, we collaborate with experts in mathematics, computer science, pedestrian dynamics, and fire safety, and also provide keynotes at leading conferences such as Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics.

Our current activities include working with computer modelling organisations who directly impact high-profile UK venues, such as Movement Strategies who are crowd movement advisors for Wembley Stadium. By working directly with industry to influence the way they model collective behaviour, we impact the ways that collective behaviour is accounted for in crowd safety planning. We also advocate the importance of using evidence-based models of collective behaviour in presentations to organisers of large events, such as the Hajj, to improve their simulations of crowd behaviour.

Behaviour in Emergencies

We aim to conduct research that can improve safe behaviour in emergencies. For example, our research for the UK Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities involves researching group dynamics in high-rise residential evacuations. We feedback our results to government representatives and fire and rescue services personnel to inform both policy and practice. Our research has informed the Cabinet Office’s ‘Crisis communication: A behavioural approach’ guidance. We also conduct ad hoc consultancy roles for organisations such as ARUP in collaboration with Transport for London to ensure we regularly input into organisational safety planning for popular crowded spaces.

Providing keynotes and participating in panel discussions is one of the main ways we engage with government, industry and emergency services to promote integration of contemporary crowd psychology into safety planning and response. Key examples include providing keynote talks to the Local Authority Building Control, FIRECO, the IAFSS working group on Human Behaviour in Fires, and participating in a panel discussion on how to improve crowd safety in publicly accessible locations for a Home Office event.

Event Safety

Our research has a core aim of improving safety at organised crowd events such as religious gatherings, music festivals, and sports events. Part of this entails giving talks about crowd psychology to organisers of large events such as the Hajj and the 2018 Winter Olympics. However, it is our work with government legislative bodies and event safety personnel that we believe has the most direct pathway to impact.

We work closely with the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (UK government’s advisor on sports grounds safety) to research spectator experiences of events and how group processes can be used to facilitate safe behaviour. Our research for the Sports Grounds Safety Authority ensures recent findings from crowd psychology inform their safety standards and best practice for UK sports grounds. Our findings have been used as evidence in a House of Commons debate about spectator attendance at football matches during Covid-19, and our recommendations to improve safety at sports events have been shared with organisations who have a front seat at changing practice, such as the Premier League.

Similarly, we conducted surveys and interviews for the UK Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport during phases 1 and 2 of the Events Research Programme to identify how group processes impacted perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 and related adherence to the COVID-19 safety guidance. We held a seat as an observer on the Events Research Programme Science Board where we presented fortnightly research findings to guide the progression of the Programme and helped to develop a report of the key Programme findings to the Prime Minister. We have a strong focus on ensuring events are accessible for all and have also presented our findings to other government departments such as the UK Department of Health and Social Care.

Health & Social Care

Our flagship impact activity for this area is our work for the Chief Nursing Officer’s Directorate of Scottish Government into the barriers healthcare staff in Scotland face when following the COVID-19 safety guidance. This project involves working directly with hospital staff to identify and resolve barriers that making following the guidance difficult. Outputs of this project include regular presentations to hospital management groups to ensure they are kept up to date with recent findings, as well as to the COVID-19 Nosocomial Review Group within the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate and the Infection Prevention and Control cell, and the Infection Prevention Control Scotland conference. A key achievement of the project is that we are currently trialling a training module for staff in health and social care settings with an aim to make it accessible professional development training for all staff in leadership roles,

Our other impact activities include providing talks about the importance of group processes in facilitating safe behaviour, such as by participating in a panel discussion for the Royal Society Edinburgh’s public Curious event on communication and collaboration in a crisis. We are also working with the Scottish Ambulance Service to develop accessible out-of-hospital cardiac arrest training for the Scottish public. This involves trailing social norms-based interventions and comparing it to the current gold standard training, so watch this space!