Welcome to the Identities & Collective Behaviour research group website!
We are a team of social psychologists whose research focuses on exploring the role of group processes in collective behaviour. Our aim is to improve safety at organised crowd events and in emergencies. We do this by using surveys, experiments, interviews, and observational analyses to understand how any why group processes impact behaviour, and develop interventions to facilitate safety. Our collaborations with emergency services, UK and Scottish government, computer modellers and legislative bodies for event safety mean that we apply our research to multiple contexts including organised mass events, emergency evacuations, and healthcare settings.
News
New Podcast!
Dr Anne Templeton discusses the critical importance of trust - how it shapes public cooperation, emergency management, and effective communication on this - The Firefighters Podcast.
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We are ecstatic to have been awarded a 3 year renewal funding for our FLF project!
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On 20.5.2025 Dr Fergus Neville presented our poster - ‘Understanding the impact of first responder communication approaches on public adherence during evacuation’ at the first International Conference on Social Identity Leadership and Fellowship (ICSILF) in Prague
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New paper published on Collective Dynamics - Glossary for Research on Human Crowd Dynamics - 2nd Edition. Collective Dynamics, 10, 1–32. You can read it here.
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In August Dr Anne Templeton Gave a Professional training lecture to local resilience leaders, Norwegian Civil Defence - ’Information sharing in emergencies: examining the evidence’
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We published our new paper
‘Understanding crowd responses to perceived hostile threats: An innovative multidisciplinary approach’ You can read the paper here.
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Dr Waleed Alhajri passed his viva with no corrections! Dr Waleed Alhajri published his paper ‘Shared social identity and social norms shape risk-taking at mass gatherings’
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Sayaka Hinata published her systematic review ‘Communicating with the public in emergencies: A systematic review of communication approaches in emergency response'. You can read the paper here