title: Crowd behavior at mass gatherings: a literature review.
abstract: Gaining an understanding of crowd behavior is important in supporting timely and appropriate crowd management principles in the planning and provision of emergency services at mass gatherings. This paper provides a review of the current understanding of the psychological factors of a crowd within the psychosocial domain as they apply to mass-gathering settings. It can be concluded from this review that there is a large theory-practice gap in relation to crowd psychology and the mass-gathering setting. The literature has highlighted two important elements of crowd behavior-there must be a "seed" and people must engage. Understanding these behaviors may provide opportunities to change crowd behavior outcomes.
authors: St. John Ambulance, South Australia, Australia. kmzeitz@bigpond.com.au
authors: Kathryn M
authors: KM
authors: Zeitz
authors: Heather M
authors: HM
authors: Tan
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Grief
authors: P C
authors: PC
authors: Couns
authors: Christopher J
authors: CJ
authors: Zeitz
mesh_terms: D032763:Behavior Control / Q000523:psychology*; D003441:Crowding / Q000523:psychology*; D004189:Disaster Planning; D006801:Humans