Abstract
Understanding influences on pedestrian movement is important to accurately simulate crowd behaviour, yet little research has explored the psychological factors that influence interactions between large groups in counterflow scenarios. Research from social psychology has demonstrated that social identities can influence the micro-level pedestrian movement of a psychological crowd, yet this has not been extended to explore behaviour when two large psychological groups are co-present. This study investigates how the presence of large groups with different social identities can affect pedestrian behaviour when walking in counterflow. Participants (N = 54) were divided into two groups and primed to have identities as either ‘team A’ or ‘team B’. The trajectories of all participants were tracked to compare the movement of team A when walking alone to when walking in counterflow with team B, based on their i) speed of movement and distance walked, and ii) proximity between participants. In comparison to walking alone, the presence of another group influenced team A to collectively self-organise to reduce their speed and distance walked in order to walk closely together with ingroup members. We discuss the importance of incorporating social identities into pedestrian group dynamics for empirically validated simulations of counterflow scenarios.
Highlights
Pedestrian models are used to increase safety at mass events by predicting and monitoring crowd behaviour, such as at the Olympic Games [1], the Hajj [2], and in transport hubs for both everyday scenarios and emergency evacuations [3, 4]
The present study investigates the impact on pedestrian behaviour when a large group walks on their own, and when two large groups with different social identities walk in counterflow
This study aims to extend the work of Templeton, Drury, and Philippides [17] to examine whether pedestrians with a shared social identity will coordinate their behaviour with their ingroup to be closer to ingroup members than outgroup members
Summary
Pedestrian models are used to increase safety at mass events by predicting and monitoring crowd behaviour, such as at the Olympic Games [1], the Hajj [2], and in transport hubs for both everyday scenarios and emergency evacuations [3, 4] These models are based on core assumptions about the motivations behind pedestrian behaviour, but the factors underlying collective behaviour are widely debated. Analysis on the role of individual differences, environmental and social cues, collision avoidance through preferred proximity, and group formations have made important contributions to understanding pedestrian behaviour. These approaches have predominantly dealt with individuals receiving social cues, or small groups walking through a crowd. Little research has addressed what happens when two large groups come into counterflow
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