Why people go along with authority, why they follow COVID measures ….and how the UK Government has blown it
Speaker: Prof Stephen Reicher (Wardlaw Professor of Psychology, University of St. Andrews)
Steve Reicher is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Currently he sits on SPI-B (the Behavioural Science Advisory Group to SAGE), and the Scottish CMO Advisory Group. He is also a member of Independent SAGE. His work is on social identity and group processes. He has researched topics such as crowd behaviour, leadership, conformity and obedience, intergroup hatred and the psychology of tyranny.
Steve will contrast two different approaches to the psychology of the pandemic: the one rooted in a notion of individual fragility and ‘panic’ under conditions of crisis, the other based on the notion of collective resilience which flows from the emergence of a sense of shared identity when people faced a common threat. He will analyse the ways in which shared identity impacts adherence, mutual support and mental (as well as physical) well-being. He will consider how leadership can serve either to buttress or undermine shared identity. Ultimately the success with which authorities handle the pandemic is dependent upon whether they treat the public as the problem or as the solution and are able to work in partnership with the community in order to limit transmission of infection.
You can watch a recording of the event here.