Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Nov 13;8(11):e78983.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078983. eCollection 2013.

Crowdedness mediates the effect of social identification on positive emotion in a crowd: a survey of two crowd events

David Novelli  1 , John Drury, Stephen Reicher, Clifford Stott
Affiliations

Crowdedness mediates the effect of social identification on positive emotion in a crowd: a survey of two crowd events

David Novelli et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Exposure to crowding is said to be aversive, yet people also seek out and enjoy crowded situations. We surveyed participants at two crowd events to test the prediction of self-categorization theory that variable emotional responses to crowding are a function of social identification with the crowd. In data collected from participants who attended a crowded outdoor music event (n = 48), identification with the crowd predicted feeling less crowded; and there was an indirect effect of identification with the crowd on positive emotion through feeling less crowded. Identification with the crowd also moderated the relation between feeling less crowded and positive emotion. In data collected at a demonstration march (n = 112), identification with the crowd predicted central (most dense) location in the crowd; and there was an indirect effect of identification with the crowd on positive emotion through central location in the crowd. Positive emotion in the crowd also increased over the duration of the crowd event. These findings are in line with the predictions of self-categorization theory. They are inconsistent with approaches that suggest that crowding is inherently aversive; and they cannot easily be explained through the concept of 'personal space'.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Model of social identification as predictor of positive emotion, mediated by feeling too crowded.
The confidence interval for the indirect effect is a BCa bootstrapped CI based on 1000 samples.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Simple slopes equations of the regression of positive emotion on feeling too crowded at three levels of identification with the crowd.
Note: Low = 1 SD below the centred mean; high = 1 SD above the centred mean.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Model of social identification as predictor of positive experience, mediated by location in the crowd.
The confidence interval for the indirect effect is a BCa bootstrapped CI based on 1000 samples.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Simple slopes equations of the regression of positive emotion on central location in the crowd at three levels of identification with the crowd.
Note: Low = 1 SD below the centred mean; high = 1 SD above the centred mean.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Aylott R, Mitchell V (1998) An exploratory study of grocery shopping stressors. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 26:, 362–373.
    1. Evans GW, Ricciuti HN, Hope S, Schoon I, Bradley RH, et al. (2010) Crowding and cognitive development: The mediating role of maternal responsiveness among 36-month-old children. Environment and Behavior 42: 135–148.
    1. Griffitt W, Veitch R (1971) Hot and crowded: Influences of population density and temperature on interpersonal affective behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 17: 92–98. - PubMed
    1. Freedman JL (1975) Crowding and behaviour. San Francisco: WH Freeman & Co.
    1. Lawrence JES (1974) Science and sentiment: Overview of research on crowding and human behavior. Psychological Bulletin 81: 712–720.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources