A case study of crowd and collective behaviour

reicher’s study

Aim: a riot as a form of apparent disorder, where a group of people react violently towards other people or property. However, Reicher argued that such groups may not actually be disordered. They appear to act in a disorderly manner, but in fact may have a unified aim and follow rules.

Therefore, Reicher set out to study the behaviour of a crowd to see if it could be described as ruly, rather than unruly.

Method: Reicher took the opportunity to conduct an in-depth study of a riot when there was one in the Saint Pauls area of Bristol. He analysed reports of the riot from the police newspapers, TV and radio stations. He also interviewed 20 people immediately after the riot to obtain an understanding of what happened, six of these people were interviewed in depth.

Results: Reicher’s summary of the event was: the riot was triggered when policeman raided the black and white café in the Saint Pauls area of Bristol around 3:30 pm on the 2nd of April 1980, to arrest people in relation to illegal drinking and drugs.

News of the raid spread quickly and within an hour, a crowd gathered outside the café. It is not clear exactly what sparked off the actual riots- There are many different suggestions, but basically the crowd felt the police had launched an unjustified attack on the café and had behaved in a provocative manner. One story is that a man’s trousers were ripped. Another story said the police shouted abuse.

The crowd started throwing stones at the police and their cars, burning some of the cars. A few policeman were hit by bricks and one needed stitches. Some policeman were trapped inside the café and a further force of about 40 police arrived to rescue them. The attack intensified and spread to a pub, banks and post office causing much damage.

The size of the crowd was estimated odds between 300 and 3,000 people. After the police eventually left around 7:30 pm the crowd did not stray outside of Saint Pauls. Some of the rioters helped direct traffic through the area to ease congestion.

Conclusions: Reicher observed that all damage was limited to the main target- The police -any other damage to the other buildings and people was unintentional. Some cars and people were attacked, but they were believed to be associated with the police. Moreover, as soon as the police withdrew the violence stopped.

Therefore, Reicher concluded that the groups behaviour was very clearly rule-driven. The residents only expressed their anger towards predictable targets, i.e. the police and authority.

Evaluation: supported by research

one strength is, the other research has come to similar conclusions about crowd behaviour.

Research on deindividuation also showed that crowd behaviour is not simply mindless and without direction. To the contrary, it seems to be very much driven by social norms related to acceptable behaviour for that social group.

This perspective was born out in an analysis by Peter Marsh of football hooliganism. He concluded that the apparent disorder of hooligans is actually governed by rules, which prevent violence escalating beyond a certain point.

And this research therefore supports the view that crowd behaviour is not unruly, but governed by the social norms of the group.

Evaluation: issues with methodology

One weakness of the study is that the data was subjective

Reicher based his account on eyewitness testimony- This includes reporters who witnessed events and wrote about it in the newspapers, as well as reports from members of the crowd. Reicher selected six people to interview in-depth who were prepared to be recorded, and acknowledges that there are problems with the data, because the people who are willing to be interviewed, may well have been biased in the view of what happened. Reicher points out that it was difficult to get anyone to talk because they were suspicious of possible uses of the data.

This means that the data may lack validity.

evaluation: real world validity

One strength of this research is that it provides ideas about how to best police such riots

The explanations offered by Reicher suggest that Harder policing policy is not what is required- whereas that is often what people regard as the solution. instead Reicher’s analyses suggests that what is needed is a clearer empathy with grievances felt by local communities. The arrival of police at the beginning of the crowd gathering seemed to simply inflame the situation. Once police withdrew the situation calmed down in Saint Pauls. so it may also be better to let local communities police themselves in such situations, and certainly counter-productive to simply increase the level of policing.

Producing real-world applications is an important outcome of any psychological research, showing that the research has real value.