2 February 2007

The greatest show on earth

Researchers studying the largest single gathering of people on Earth may have unlocked the secret of how large communities can live together in harmony.

Researchers from the Universities of St Andrews, Dundee and Lancaster have just returned from studying the largest crowd event on earth - the 30 million strong Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, Northern India.

Professor Steve Reicher and Dr Clare Cassidy from St Andrews have been studying ‘the collective experience of the Mela’ for the last three years alongside Dr Nick Hopkins of the University of Dundee and Dr Mark Levine from Lancaster University. Last month they observed crowd behaviour at the Mela, a month long Hindu festival held on the banks of the Ganges. The festival, which ends today (Friday 2nd February 2007), provides a unique setting in which to study mass psychology.

"The Mela is an incredible event - like a vast biblical scene. But it also carries some fundamental lessons for our understanding of society," Professor Reicher explained.

"Many people argue that crowds are bad for you. But, in the Mela, we found that people become more generous, more supportive and more orderly rather than less," observed Dr Cassidy.

"This is the opposite of a ‘walk on by’ society, it is a community where people are attentive to the needs of strangers," she said.

Professor Reicher added that these positive effects extend to the overall well-being of participants. He explained, "Despite the fact that the Mela seems designed to increase stress in every way - it is very noisy day and night, very unhealthy, and very packed - what we found was that actually people feel serene, peaceful and unstressed. These various findings raise very important questions about the nature of collective participation and how it can affect both individual well-being and social cohesion," he said.

In order to overcome the many challenges involved in investigating such an extraordinary event, the researchers also collaborated with colleagues from a consortium of Indian Universities.

The team’s work overturns many longstanding presuppositions about crowd behaviour and collective living. It shows that, where people share a strong sense of common identity, then the close proximity of others becomes something that is beneficial rather than harmful. For the St Andrews team and their colleagues, their investigation of how those benefits come about can provide the key to understanding and creating successful communities.

NOTE TO EDITORS:

THE RESEARCHERS ARE AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW:

CONTACT PROFESSOR STEVE REICHER, TEL: 01334 463057, EMAIL mailto:sdr@st-andrews.ac.uk

Issued by Press Office, University of St Andrews
Contact Gayle Cook, Press Officer on 01334 467227 / 462529, mobile 07900
050 103, or email gec3@st-andrews.ac.uk

For media enquiries contact:

Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk