School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, United Kingdom; andDepartment of Urban Design, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj Research, Umm Al-Qura University, Mecca, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, United Kingdom; and
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Jun 24;111(25):9091-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1404953111. Epub 2014 Jun 9.
Crowd safety is a major concern for those attending and managing mass gatherings, such as the annual Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca (also called Makkah). One threat to crowd safety at such events is crowd density. However, recent research also suggests that psychological membership of crowds can have positive benefits. We tested the hypothesis that the effect of density on safety might vary depending on whether there is shared social identification in the crowd. We surveyed 1,194 pilgrims at the Holy Mosque, Mecca, during the 2012 Hajj. Analysis of the data showed that the negative effect of crowd density on reported safety was moderated by social identification with the crowd. Whereas low identifiers reported reduced safety with greater crowd density, high identifiers reported increased safety with greater crowd density. Mediation analysis suggested that a reason for these moderation effects was the perception that other crowd members were supportive. Differences in reported safety across national groups (Arab countries and Iran compared with the rest) were also explicable in terms of crowd identification and perceived support. These findings support a social identity account of crowd behavior and offer a novel perspective on crowd safety management.
人群安全是参加和管理大型集会（如一年一度的麦加朝觐或朝圣（也称为麦加））的人的主要关注点。这种活动中人群安全的一个威胁是人群密度。然而，最近的研究还表明，人群的心理成员身份可能会带来积极的好处。我们检验了这样一个假设，即密度对安全性的影响可能取决于人群中是否存在共同的社会认同。我们在 2012 年麦加朝觐期间对麦加圣寺的 1194 名朝圣者进行了调查。数据分析表明，人群密度对报告的安全性的负面影响受到与人群的社会认同的调节。低认同者报告说，人群密度越大，安全性越低，而高认同者报告说，人群密度越大，安全性越高。中介分析表明，造成这些调节效应的原因是认为其他人群成员是支持的。报告的安全性在不同国家群体（阿拉伯国家和伊朗与其他国家相比）之间的差异也可以根据人群认同和感知到的支持来解释。这些发现支持了一种关于人群行为的社会认同理论，并为人群安全管理提供了一个新的视角。
