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RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT

New study: Shared social identities in mass gatherings can lead to lowered health risk perceptions and increased health risk behaviours

A photo of a crowd.

A new study published in Social Science and Medicine explored how healthcare professionals perceive health risk perceptions and behaviours in mass gatherings.

Previous research has shown that people in mass gatherings often experience a sense of shared social identity with others and that this shared identity leads to greater trust and in turn greater health risk behaviours, such as drug and alcohol use, and lower concern for disease transmission. The study focused on healthcare professionals’ understanding of how social processes underpin health risk behaviours and identified how a range of factors, such as identity expression, social norms, group pressure, may influence risk taking behaviours. Healthcare professionals in the study also gave concrete suggestions as to how social processes can be drawn upon in the design of healthcare interventions that aim to mitigate health risk behaviours in mass gatherings.

The results from the study have implications not only for health risk behaviours in mass-gatherings but also society at large, wherein shared social identities and social norms of trust and social support sometimes can result in decreased health risk perceptions and increased health risk behaviours. That is, sometimes health risks become greater when we find ourselves surrounded by people whom we feel close to, trust, and rely on in social situations.   


Read the full article here:
Hult Khazaie, D., Stott, C., & Khan, S. S. (2021). Mass meets mosh: Exploring healthcare professionals’ perspectives on social identity processes and health risks at a religious pilgrimage and music festivals. Social Science & Medicine, 272,