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Collective motion of humans in mosh and circle pits at heavy metal concerts

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

J.L. Silverberg
M. Bierbaum
J.P. Sethna
Itai Cohen

Abstract

Human collective behavior can vary from calm to panicked depending on social context. Using videos publicly available online, we study the highly energized collective motion of attendees at heavy metal concerts. We find these extreme social gatherings generate similarly extreme behaviors: a disordered gaslike state called a mosh pit and an ordered vortexlike state called a circle pit. Both phenomena are reproduced in flocking simulations demonstrating that human collective behavior is consistent with the predictions of simplified models. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Date Published

Journal

Physical Review Letters

Volume

110

Issue

22

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84878354924&doi=10.1103%2fPhysRevLett.110.228701&partnerID=40&md5=b61ad1bc1b9bbb79cabfb76988ddd601

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.228701

Research Area

Group (Lab)

Itai Cohen Group
James Sethna Group

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