Gert Jan about crowd behaviour across cultures

Virtual escape room

The IMPACT project has investigated crowd behaviour in emergencies. It has a special focus on cross-cultural differences in crowd behaviour. 

The project investigated a varied literature. Among many other outputs, it focuses on agent-based modelling of crowd behaviour, thus creating a virtual laboratory. 

The IMPACT final event takes place in Rome on 21 September 2017. 

Gert Jan's keynote

Crowds across cultures

Gert Jan was told by the IMPACT workers that the theory on cross-cultural crowd behaviour is still patchy. Being a biologist, he decided to get inspiration from bird flock models, and try to adapt those to culture.

Gert Jan will present an agent-based model he created that allows to vary important parameters. These include percentage of people knowing the exit, and parameters of interpersonal distance for in-group and out-group others.