Linde, Juliette, van (2026) The Sound of Crowds: Guiding the Perception of Crowd Behaviour. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Crowds do not only communicate through visible behaviour but sounds produced by and within crowds are also very informative and influence group behaviour. There is several literature on crowd sounds in sports, music and crowds itself. However, there is limited literature on the perception of crowd behaviour. Therefore, the present study examines the research question: “How do crowd sounds (no sound, fun sounds, fearful sounds) shape the individuals’ affect, cognition and behaviour when they watch a video of crowd behaviour?” Personally, zooming in on gender differences in the perception of crowd behaviour. A between-subjects design was used to assign participants (19 men and 50 women) in a condition, where sound was manipulated (no sound, fun and fearful sound). The experiment consisted of two phases. In the first phase, participants individually watched a video and completed a questionnaire. In the second phase, participants performed the same task collectively in groups (three to four participants), enabling observation of behavioural processes. Results showed a significant effect for the fun condition, suggesting that fun changes the perception of the situation. Furthermore, a small effect for the fearful sound was found, which implies that crowd sounds can trigger negative emotional processes too. Individual results suggested that gender plays a moderate role in how crowd sounds shape the individuals’ affect. The results indicate that future research should examine sound in crowd behaviour. Limitations of the study were the smaller sample size, due to the amount of time of the study.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Postmes, T.T. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | None [Bachelor Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Jan 2026 07:27 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Jan 2026 07:27 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/6067 |
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