School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK.
Department of Urban Design, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj Research, Umm Al-Qura University, Mecca, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2018 Aug 19;373(1753). doi: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0240.
Around 2 million pilgrims attend the annual Hajj to Mecca and the holy places, which are subject to dense crowding. Both architecture and psychology can be part of disaster risk reduction in relation to crowding, since both can affect the nature of collective behaviour-particularly cooperation-among pilgrims. To date, collective behaviour at the Hajj has not been systematically investigated from a psychological perspective. We examined determinants of cooperation in the Grand Mosque and plaza during the pilgrimage. A questionnaire survey of 1194 pilgrims found that the Mosque was perceived by pilgrims as one of the most crowded ritual locations. Being in the plaza (compared with the Mosque) predicted the extent of cooperation, though crowd density did not. Shared social identity with the crowd explained more of the variance than both location and density. We examined some of the process underlying cooperation. The link between shared social identity and giving support to others was stronger in the plaza than in the Mosque, and suggests the role of place and space in modulating processes of cooperation in crowds. These findings have implications for disaster risk reduction and for applications such as computer simulations of crowds in pilgrimage locations.This article is part of the theme issue 'Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour'.
大约有 200 万朝圣者每年都会前往麦加和圣地参加朝觐，那里人口密集。建筑和心理学都可以成为减少拥挤相关的灾害风险的一部分，因为它们都可以影响朝圣者集体行为的本质，尤其是合作。迄今为止，从心理学的角度来看，还没有系统地研究朝觐期间的集体行为。我们考察了在朝圣期间，大寺和广场上合作的决定因素。对 1194 名朝圣者的问卷调查发现，朝圣者认为大寺是最拥挤的宗教场所之一。与大寺相比，身处广场上预示着更大程度的合作，尽管人群密度并没有。与人群的共同社会身份比位置和密度解释了更多的差异。我们考察了合作背后的一些过程。在广场上，共同社会身份与向他人提供支持之间的联系比在大寺更为紧密，这表明场所和空间在调节人群中的合作过程中发挥了作用。这些发现对减少灾害风险以及在朝圣场所的人群计算机模拟等应用具有重要意义。本文是主题为“揭示建筑对集体行为影响的跨学科方法”的一部分。
