Steve Reicher

Education

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

Career and research

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

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. Reicher is an editor for a number of journals including Scientific American Mind. 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. 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. 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. His research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). 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. Unlike the "classic" theories, which tended to presume an association between collectivity and 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.

BBC Prison study

Reicher collaborated with Alex Haslam of the University of Exeter on the BBC television programme The Experiment, 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.

Publications

• Reicher, S.D. (1982). "The determination of collective behaviour" (pp. 41–83). In H. Tajfel (ed.), Social identity and intergroup relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Reicher, S.D. (1984b). "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, 1–21. Also in: Murphy, J., John, M. & Brown, H. (1984), (eds.). Dialogues and debates in social psychology (pp. 187–205). London: Lawrence Erlbaum/Open University
• Reicher, S. & Potter, J. (1985). "Psychological theory as intergroup perspective: A comparative analysis of 'scientific' and 'lay' accounts of crowd events". Human Relations, 38, 167–189.
• Turner, J. C., Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell, M. S. (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Reicher, S., Spears, R. & Postmes, T. (1995). "A social identity model of deindividuation phenomena". In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (eds.), European Review of Social Psychology, 6, 161–198.
• Reicher, S. (1996) "Social identity and social change: Rethinking the context of social psychology". In W.P. Robinson (Ed.) Social groups and identities: Developing the legacy of Henri Tajfel (pp. 317–336). London: Butterworth.
• Reicher S. D., & Hopkins, N. (1996). "Seeking influence through characterising self-categories: An analysis of anti-abortionist rhetoric". British Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 297–311.
• Reicher, S. (1996). "The Crowd century: Reconciling practical success with theoretical failure". British Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 535–53.
• Reicher S. D., & Hopkins, N. (1996). "Self-category constructions in political rhetoric; An analysis of Thatcher's and Kinnock's speeches concerning the British miners' strike (1984–85)", European Journal of Social Psychology, 26, 353–371.
• Stott, C. & Reicher, S. (1998a). "Crowd action as inter-group process: Introducing the police perspective". European Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 509–529.
• Drury, J. & Reicher, S. (1999). "The intergroup dynamics of collective empowerment: Substantiating the social identity model of crowd behaviour". Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 2, 381–402.
• Reicher, S. (2001). "Studying psychology, studying racism". In M. Augoustinos & K. J. Reynolds. (Eds.), Understanding prejudice, Racism, and Social conflict. London: Sage.
• Stott, C., Hutchison, P. & Drury, J. (2001). "'Hooligans' abroad? Inter-group dynamics, social identity and participation in collective 'disorder' at the 1998 World Cup Finals". British Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 359–384.
• Reicher, S. D. & Hopkins, N. (2001). Self and nation: Categorization, contestation and mobilisation. London: Sage.
• Drury, J., Reicher, S. & Stott, C. (2003) "Transforming the boundaries of collective identity: From the 'local' anti-road campaign to 'global' resistance?" Social Movement Studies, 2, 191–212.
• Drury, J., Cocking, C., Beale, J., Hanson, C. & Rapley, F. (2005). "The phenomenology of empowerment in collective action". British Journal of Social Psychology, 44, 309–328.
• Reicher, S. D., Haslam, S. A., & Hopkins, N. (2005). "Social identity and the dynamics of leadership: Leaders and followers as collaborative agents in the transformation of social reality". Leadership Quarterly. 16, 547–568.
• Haslam, S.A; Reicher, S.D. & Platow, M.J. (2010) The New Psychology Of Leadership: Identity, Influence And Power, New York: Psychology Press

Awards and distinctions

• 2004 - Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE)
• 2018 - Fellow of the British Academy (FBA)
• 2021 - Honorary Fellow, British Psychological Society (HonFBPsS)

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

References

References

1. Sani, Fabio. (1996). "The social psychology of schisms". University of Exeter.
2. "Welcome to the official site for the BBC Prison Study".
3. "Stephen David Reicher - University of St Andrews".
4. {{Scopus id
5. {{Google scholar id
6. Reicher, Stephen David. (1984). "The determination of collective behaviour". University of Aberdeen.
7. "Investigating Psychology: CHIPs".
8. (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.
9. (September 2021). "From our new President". The Psychologist.
10. Al-Khalili, Jim. (2018). "Stephen Reicher on the psychology of crowds". [[BBC]].