Cronin Patrick, Reicher Stephen
School of Social and Health Sciences, University of Abertay, UK.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2006 Mar;45(Pt 1):175-196. doi: 10.1348/014466605x41364.
This paper fits into the SIDE perspective (Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995; Postmes, Spears, Lea, & Reicher, 2000), which emphasises the importance of integrating the cognitive and strategic dimensions of group processes. Our study examines the decisions made by senior police officers during a simulation exercise of a crowd event. The analysis shows, firstly, that officers are deeply concerned about their accountability to a variety of audiences, both internal and external to the police force. Second, these different audiences pressure them to act in different, and sometimes contradictory, ways. What counts, then, is the overall balance between accountability concerns. Third, this balance - and, with it, police perceptions and decisions - alters in the course of an event. More specifically, with escalating conflict, the balance of accountability concerns moves increasingly in the direction of undifferentiated intervention against crowd members. In discussion, we consider both the theoretical implications of this analysis for research on group processes (in particular the importance of accountability issues once one moves beyond the laboratory and deals with groups that have a past and future and in which membership is more than simply an act of choice) and the practical implications in terms of crowd policing.
本文符合社会认同动态嵌入（SIDE）视角（赖克、斯皮尔斯和波斯特梅斯，1995年；波斯特梅斯、斯皮尔斯、利阿和赖克，2000年），该视角强调整合群体过程的认知和战略维度的重要性。我们的研究考察了高级警官在一次人群事件模拟演练中的决策。分析表明，首先，警官们深切关注他们对警察部队内部和外部各种受众的问责。其次，这些不同的受众迫使他们以不同的、有时甚至相互矛盾的方式行事。那么，重要的是问责问题之间的总体平衡。第三，这种平衡——以及警察的认知和决策——在事件过程中会发生变化。更具体地说，随着冲突升级，问责问题的平衡越来越朝着对人群成员进行无差别干预的方向发展。在讨论中，我们既考虑了这一分析对群体过程研究的理论意义（特别是一旦超越实验室，处理有过去和未来且成员身份不仅仅是简单选择行为的群体时，问责问题的重要性），也考虑了在人群治安方面的实际意义。
