#crowd behaviour

[bpod-bpod]

From the Crowd

Crowds do interesting things – birds flock, teams surge, cells form patterns in embryos. Grouping together to face a challenge ensures at least some will succeed or survive. But how does the behaviour of individuals contribute to group dynamics, the emergent behaviour? These white-coloured swirls are mounds of Myxococcus xanthus bacteria which have huddled together under stress. Different coloured lines follow each individual bacterium on its journey to the safety of a larger community. Researchers used mathematical models to simulate how bacteria with certain mutated genes compensate for what they lack – speed, for example – with other traits, such as less erratic movement. Rather than simply mimicking the rest of the community, these individuals’ characteristics make crowds more robust and adaptable. Similar modelling approaches might help to investigate how individual cancer cells break away from a tumorous crowd during metastasis – as a step towards blocking this rogue behaviour.

Written by John Ankers

Image by C. Cotter, University of Georgia, GA, USA

Department of Bioengineering and Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

Image copyright held by C.Cotter

Research published in mSystems, July 2020

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[wealth-dynamics]

  STERLING Great British Pound (GBP) is in the "sick" bay? Bond markets have taken in their stride the trillions of dollars in pandemic spending by governments, but investors in currency markets are getting nervous about countries' remaining fiscal firepower. With the developed world largely out of room to cut interest rates further, investors are increasingly

[superjaysons]

Chappell says Warner unfairly singled out

Chappell says Warner unfairly singled out

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Chappell says Warner unfairly singled out <!-- Australian opening batsman David Warner

As Australia prepares to re-enter the infamous Cape Town dressing room, Ian Chappell has claimed David Warner was singled out for prejudicial treatment in cricket’s ball-tampering scandal.

The Test legend believes Steve Smith’s imminent availability to captain Australia again compared with…

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[patrickmackie]

Outrageous racist reporting by the BBC (and The Guardian)

Outrageous racist reporting by the BBC (and The Guardian)

The BBChave been reporting on the crush deaths of members of the public attending a New Year’s Eve fireworks event in the Ivory Coast [link here]. I first heard about the tragedy when listening to the radio and heard the newsreader use the term “stampede” in relation to the crushing. The Guardian uses the same verb. Let’s look at what appears to have happened: (more…)

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[tenderculture]

The Kerner report concluded that the key factor behind the unrest – the worst in US history since the Civil War – was widespread deprivation within black communities. It noted that black people were twice as likely as whites to be unemployed, and almost four times as likely to be living in poverty. The report also pointed out that the typical rioter was better educated than the average person in their communities, more socially integrated and less likely to have a previous criminal record. ‘What the rioters appeared to be seeking was fuller participation in the social order and the material benefits enjoyed by the majority of American citizens,’ it concluded. ‘Rather than rejecting the American system, they were anxious to obtain a place for themselves in it.’ This sits neatly with Reicher’s theory, which holds that people in crowds behave not with mindlessness or madness, but by co-operating with those around them. They do not lose their heads but instead act with full rational intent. In London, many (though not all) of the rioters were motivated by a shared sense of grievance at how their communities had been treated by police in the preceding months and years, in particular the frequency with which young black men were being stopped and searched by police in the street for no good reason. When the riot started, many individuals felt that, as members of a dissatisfied group, they had a legitimate cause to join in.

Michael Bond