Steve Reicher

FBA FRSE
Born
Stephen David Reicher
Alma materUniversity of Bristol[citation needed]
(PhD)[3]
Known forBBC Prison Study[4]
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsUniversity of St Andrews
University of Dundee
University of Exeter
ThesisThe determination of collective behaviour (1984)
Doctoral studentsFabio Sani[2]
Websiterisweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/stephen-david-reicher(a0a908db-1bb8-4d5e-ab30-f47643e35169).html

Stephen David Reicher FBA FRSE is Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Social Psychology at the University of St Andrews.[5][6][7][1]

His research is in the area of social psychology, focusing on social identity, collective behaviour, intergroup conflict, leadership and mobilisation. He is broadly interested in the issues of group behaviour and the individual-social relationship.

Education

After attending the Perse School, Cambridge, Reicher completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Bristol[citation needed] and his PhD also at the University of Bristol in 1984 with a thesis on collective behaviour.[3] At Bristol, Reicher worked closely with Henri Tajfel and John Turner on social identity theory and social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE).[8]

Career and research

Reicher held positions at the University of Dundee and University of Exeter before moving to St Andrews in 1997.[citation needed] He was formerly head of the School of Psychology at St Andrews.[when?]

He is a former Associate Editor of the Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology and Chief Editor (with Margaret Wetherell) of the British Journal of Social Psychology.[citation needed] Reicher is an editor for a number of journals including Scientific American Mind.[citation needed] His research[7] is in the area of social psychology, focusing on social identity, collective behaviour, intergroup conflict, leadership and mobilisation.[1] He is broadly interested in the issues of group behaviour and the individual-social relationship.[citation needed] His research interests can be grouped into three areas. The first is an attempt to develop a model of crowd action that accounts for both social determination and social change.[citation needed] The second concerns the construction of social categories through language and action. The third concerns political rhetoric and mass mobilisation – especially around the issue of national identity.[citation needed] His research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).[6] His former doctoral students include John Dixon, John Drury, Nick Hopkins, Mark Levine, Eva Loth, Fabio Sani and Clifford Stott

Stephen Reicher as well as his direct University of Sussex colleague John Drury are both participants in the Sage subcommittee advising on behavioural science during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was also a member of the advisory committee to the Scottish Government and convened the behavioural science group of Independent SAGE.

Crowd psychology theory

Reicher's work on crowd psychology has challenged the dominant notion of crowd as site of irrationality and deindividuation. His social identity model (SIM, 1982, 1984, 1987) of crowd behaviour suggests that people are able to act as one in crowd events not because of 'contagion' or social facilitation but because they share a common social identity. This common identity specifies what counts as normative conduct.[citation needed] Unlike the 'classic' theories, which tended to presume that collectivity was associated with uncontrolled violence (due to a regression to instinctive drives or a pre-existing 'racial unconscious'), the social identity model explicitly acknowledges variety by suggesting that different identities have different norms – some peaceful, some conflictual – and that, even where crowds are conflictual, the targets will be only those specified by the social identity of the crowd.[citation needed]

BBC Prison study

Reicher collaborated with Alex Haslam of the University of Exeter on the BBC television programme The Experiment,[4] which examined conflict, order, rebellion and tyranny in the behaviour of a group of individuals held in a simulated prison environment. The experiment (which became known as the BBC Prison Study) re-examined issues raised by the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) and led to a number of publications in leading psychology journals. Amongst other things, these challenged the role account of tyranny associated with the SPE as well as broader ideas surrounding the Banality of Evil, and advanced a social identity-based understanding of the dynamics of resistance.[citation needed]

Publications

Awards and distinctions

-He was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for The Life Scientific first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2018.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Steve Reicher publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  2. ^ Sani, Fabio (1996). The social psychology of schisms. copac.jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Exeter. OCLC 982130673. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.664751. (registration required)
  3. ^ a b Reicher, Stephen David (1984). The determination of collective behaviour. copac.jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Aberdeen. OCLC 876280070. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.593332.
  4. ^ a b "Welcome to the official site for the BBC Prison Study". bbcprisonstudy.org.
  5. ^ a b Al-Khalili, Jim (2018). "Stephen Reicher on the psychology of crowds". bbc.co.uk. BBC.
  6. ^ a b "Stephen David Reicher - University of St Andrews". risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk.
  7. ^ a b Steve Reicher publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  8. ^ "Investigating Psychology: CHIPs".
  9. ^ Book reviewed in Maines, David R. (1989). "Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorization Theory.John C. Turner , Michael A. Hogg , Penelope J. Oakes , Stephen D. Reicher , Margaret S. Wetherell". American Journal of Sociology. 94 (6): 1514–1516. doi:10.1086/229205. ISSN 0002-9602.
  10. ^ Reicher, Stephen David (1984). "The St. Pauls' riot: An explanation of the limits of crowd action in terms of a social identity model". European Journal of Social Psychology. 14 (1): 1–21. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420140102. ISSN 0046-2772. Closed access icon
  11. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2010.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2010.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2010. Retrieved 25 December 2010.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. ^ "The Psychology of Crowd Dynamics" (PDF). uni-kiel.de. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2011.
  15. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2010.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2010.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 January 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2010.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. ^ Reicher, Stephen; Haslam, S. Alexander; Rath, Rakshi (2008). "Making a Virtue of Evil: A Five-Step Social Identity Model of the Development of Collective Hate" (PDF). Social and Personality Psychology Compass. 2 (3): 1313–1344. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00113.x. ISSN 1751-9004.
  19. ^ "From our new President". The Psychologist: 3. September 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
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