Panic at "The Who Concert Stampede": An Empirical Assessment

• Published in: Social problems (Berkeley, Calif.) Vol. 34; no. 4; pp. 362 - 373
• Main Author: Johnson, Norris R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berkeley, CA University of California Press 01-10-1987; Society for the Study of Social Problems; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Arenas; Cincinnati, Ohio; Collective Behavior; Competition; Cooperation; Death & dying; Disasters; Fads; General studies; Helping behavior; Musical performances; Normativity; Panic; Police; Popular music; Public Behavior; Security guards; Social psychology; Sociology; Stampedes; United States > US; Cincinnati Ohio
• ISSN: 0037-7791; 1533-8533
• DOI: 10.1525/sp.1987.34.4.03a00040

I report evidence showing that panic did not cause the death and injury of numerous young people prior to a concert by the rock group, The Who, at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum in late 1979. An analysis of transcripts of interviews with patrons in attendance and police who were on duty when the deaths occurred reveals that people did not "stampede" over others in their rush to enter the Coliseum as media accounts contend. Instead, participants tried to help others, and most competition that did occur reflected efforts to escape the crush rather than to enter the concert. I conclude that theoretical models of panics or "crazes" within the literature on collective behavior are not very useful in explaining this type of incident.