John Drury

@profjohndrury.bsky.social

6.8K followers 1.1K following 1.4K posts

Social psychologist @Sussex.ac.uk. Collective behaviour, crowds, emergencies, Covid http://tinyurl.com/anw6sxrs Member behavioural sub-group @independentsage.bsky.social Views my own.

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John Drury is a Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Sussex. His core research is in the area of crowd psychology.

Source: Wikipedia

Psychology 24%

Political science 21%

Posts Replies Media Videos

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John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · Nov 15

Crowds & Identities -- a starter pack.

Please share.

bsky.app/starter-pack...

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 8h

Alignment and Differentiation: How Language and Network
Proximity Drive Opinion-Based Group Formation Online

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Alignment and Differentiation: How Language and Network Proximity Drive Opinion‐Based Group Formation Online

This study examines the interplay between language and social connectedness in forming opinion-based groups on social media. Drawing on small-world theory and social identity theory, we propose a dua...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 8h

‘Prepare’ yourself: The impact of the UK ‘Prepare’ website on public preparedness for emergencies and adverse events in England

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

‘Prepare’ yourself: The impact of the UK ‘Prepare’ website on public preparedness for emergencies and adverse events in England

Given the challenges facing the UK in relation to health security, the development and evaluation of risk communication resources is essential to supp…

www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Aurélien Mondon

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 1d

'Not calling out these politics for what they are can only legitimise them. This is done through euphemism (calling them “populist” for example), by absorbing and mimicking them or accepting them as “legitimate grievances” from “the people”.'

Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.bsky.social · 1d

Focusing on extreme events such as the reports of Farage’s teenage past can exceptionalise the nature of far-right politics and make it harder to call out

Some thoughts @theconversation.com on the mainstreaming of far-right politics

theconversation.com/nigel-farage...

Nigel Farage’s alleged teenage comments are a distraction from the damage of his politics

Reports of such appalling behaviour – and Farage’s reaction – give us an insight into the leader of the UK’s rising far-right party.

theconversation.com

Reposted by John Drury, Malcolm MacLean

Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.bsky.social · 1d

Nigel Farage’s alleged teenage comments are a distraction from the damage of his politics

Reports of such appalling behaviour – and Farage’s reaction – give us an insight into the leader of the UK’s rising far-right party.

theconversation.com

Reposted by Andrew Livingstone

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 1d

Please share.

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 1d

Public worry about Palestine Action ban’s impact on UK democracy, new survey finds

Evidence that the ban affects:
- willingness to protest
- trust in government
- perception of divisions in UK

More here: drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Full report: drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Media - Google Drive

drive.google.com

Reposted by Andrew Livingstone

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 1d

Media - Google Drive

drive.google.com

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 1d

It's Black Friday. Eight years ago today, a huge false alarm on Oxford Street was pathologized as a 'stampede' caused by 'mass panic'. We analysed why people mistook a harmless sound for a terrorist attack and why others joined their flight.

@ukri.org funded

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Explaining a collective false alarm: Context and cognition in the Oxford Street crowd flight incident

Collective false alarms can cause significant disruption, costly emergency response, and distress. Yet an adequate psychological explanation for these incidents is lacking. We interviewed 39 particip....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 2d

The paper should be read alongside this one led by Carina Hoerst, which analyses the role of the far right groups involved:

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

The Psychology of Crowds and Leadership in the 2021 Capitol Insurrection | Request PDF

Request PDF | On Aug 11, 2025, Carina Hoerst and others published The Psychology of Crowds and Leadership in the 2021 Capitol Insurrection | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGa...

www.researchgate.net

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 2d

Today's lecture - Crowd psychology and leadership.

Essential reading is @alexhaslam.bsky.social et al. on Trump's speech and the 2021 attack on the Capitol:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 3d

The School of Psychology @sussex.ac.uk poster conference for second-year PhD students - here is @samreenchhabra.bsky.social’s poster on her important work on youth climate activism

Reposted by John Drury

QM_UCU @qmucu.bsky.social · 3d

SUBMIT YOUR BALLOT BEFOER 5PM TODAY!

And if you need five good reasons why it's worth digging that pink envelop out of the pile of post and get it in a postbox:
qmucu.org/2025/11/21/v... -- with huge thanks to @ducu.bsky.social

a man in a suit is sitting in the driver 's seat of a car and making a funny face .

ALT: a man in a suit is sitting in the driver 's seat of a car and making a funny face .

media.tenor.com

Reposted by John Drury

The Psychologist @psychmag.bsky.social · 3d

Covid-19: Psychological perspectives, from March 2020 to now

www.bps.org.uk/collections/...

Covid-19: Psychological perspectives | BPS

Articles, interviews and more from The Psychologist and Research Digest on Covid-19: Psychological perspectives.

www.bps.org.uk

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 4d

At Viv Vignoles’s professorial lecture on selves & societies at @sussex.ac.uk

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 4d

At the @sussex.ac.uk social psychology seminar, @samreenchhabra.bsky.social presents on her important work on the (ambivalent) experiences of Indian youth climate activists - results from her interview study

Reposted by John Drury, Andrew Livingstone

The Independent @the-independent.com · 4d

‘Madness’ to increase welfare spending in Budget, says AO World boss

www.independent.co.uk

Reposted by John Drury

University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 4d

Get out, get your ballot, get it in and tell your colleagues. We’ve got this.

Tomorrow is the last safe day!

Reposted by John Drury, Jill A. Jacobson

Sarah Garfinkel @sarahgarf.bsky.social · 5d

** Recruiting a postdoc ** We are looking for a postdoc to work on emotion, mental health, and interoception, based in London at @ucl.ac.uk in my lab (Clinical and Affective Neuroscience). Part of a large Wellcome Grant (co-led with the brilliant @camillanord.bsky.social)

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 5d

Run, Hide, or Freeze: Social and
Emotional Influence on Behavior in an
Immersive School Shooting Simulation

www.researchgate.net/profile/Kevi...

www.researchgate.net

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 6d

Re-reading, for something I'm reviewing

'Why are disasters not natural?
#NoNaturalDisasters – Hazards may be natural. Disasters are not'

www.undrr.org/our-impact/c...

No Natural Disasters

A hazard can only become a disaster once it impacts on society or community. A hazard is natural, disasters are not.

www.undrr.org

Reposted by John Drury, Ruairidh Milne

Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 6d

Let’s never forget rationing ventilators and Zoom funerals. Boris Johnson and his cronies partied while our loved ones lay dying alone. COVID-19 was the worst public health crisis in a century. We should have locked down earlier. To some of us, PPE was not a get-rich-quick commodity.

Tweet announcing death of Trish’s mother from covid on 28 Dec 2020

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 6d

Intergroup Contact With Refugees Shapes Levels of Social Fear of Crime

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 6d

Arts, secular ritual, and health: combining (micro)sociology and the social cure to link the arts to health through interaction ritual

www.frontiersin.org/journals/soc...

Frontiers | Arts, secular ritual, and health: combining (micro)sociology and the social cure to link the arts to health through interaction ritual

Despite the early roots of arts and health as grounded within rituals and interest in ”community”– a term that is deeply laden with a history of rituals - th...

www.frontiersin.org

Reposted by John Drury, Lesley A. Hall, John Foot

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 6d

'It is notable that in the last Research Excellence Framework exercise the Department of American Studies at Nottingham was ranked third in the Area Studies unit of assessment and was one of the top-performing units across the whole of the University of Nottingham.' 1/2

Dr Hannah Murray @hlmurray.bsky.social · 18d

RED ALERT: the University of Nottingham is threatening to close its Department of American Studies, putting all staff at risk of redundancy, and ending any American specialist knowledge in the Faculty of Arts.

Sign the petition here to save jobs:
www.change.org/p/save-ameri...

Sign the Petition

SAVE AMERICAN STUDIES TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

www.change.org

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, John Drury, Lesley A. Hall , and 4 more Ben H. Ansell, John Drury, Lesley A. Hall, Devi Sridhar, Sue Timmis, Christina Pagel, Farah Mendlesohn

Dr Rachel Clarke @drrachelclarke.com · 6d

"My NHS colleagues & I weren’t willing to let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Boris no longer mentions them at all."

My piece on the responses to the UK Covid-UK Inquiry report that try to airbrush the dead away.

Sincere thanks, @theobserveruk.bsky.social.

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

I’ll never forget the horror of the Covid wards | The Observer

observer.co.uk

Reposted by Michael Larkin

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 7d

"The ‘Danish model’ is the darling of centre-left parties like Labour. The problem is, it doesn’t even work in Denmark"
from @casmudde.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The ‘Danish model’ is the darling of centre-left parties like Labour. The problem is, it doesn’t even work in Denmark | Cas Mudde

This week’s local elections are the latest reminder that when social democrats move rightwards, they’re making a mistake, says academic and author Cas Mudde

www.theguardian.com

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 8d

Re-reading this review of wellbeing effects of music events for something I'm working on, and it's a key reading for my project student and crowd behaviour students this term

journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

journals.sagepub.com

John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 8d

'a fragmented approach, a lack of accountability with regard
to advice (eg on ‘behavioural fatigue’), under-utilisation of SPI-B...
the expertise of SPI-B and government behavioural science teams ought to be drawn upon in pandemic planning'

UK #CovidInquiry

covid19.public-inquiry.uk/reports/

Reposted by John Drury, Fei Huang

University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 8d

Only 5 days left.

Our jobs, our sector, our future, it all depends on this vote.

Make your vote count before the last safe day on Wednesday.

#WeAreTheUniversity

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Cas Mudde, Ben H. Ansell , and 10 more Jonathan Portes, Cas Mudde, Ben H. Ansell, John Drury, Will Jennings, Mel Bartley, James M. Bullock, Ben Barr, Elizabeth Stokoe, Jonathan Hopkin, Michael H. Whitworth, Stephen Jones, Stuart White

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 8d

Why do people think England flags have been raised on lampposts?

White adults
National pride: 26%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 49%
Both: 19%

Ethnic minority adults
National pride: 15%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 55%
Both: 20%

yougov.co.uk/society/arti...

Reposted by John Drury, Andrew Scott

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 8d

More than half of ethnic minority Brits say the England flag has now become a racist symbol, with Brits of all colours now tending to say the raising of the flag is mostly about expressing anti-migrant, or anti ethnic-minority sentiment

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