Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Crowdedness Mediates the Effect of Social Identification on Positive Emotion in a Crowd: A Survey of Two Crowd Events

Stott

Crowdedness Mediates the Effect of Social Identification on Positive Emotion in a Crowd: A Survey of Two Crowd Events Thumbnail


Authors



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’.

Acceptance Date Sep 13, 2013
Publication Date Nov 13, 2013
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal PLoS One
Print ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher Public Library of Science
DOI https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078983
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078983

Files




You might also like



Downloadable Citations