Collective Motion of Moshers at Heavy Metal Concerts

Condensed Matter journal club

Collective Motion of Moshers at Heavy Metal Concerts

Event details

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 gas-like state called a mosh pit and an ordered vortex-like 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.
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Authors

Jesse L. Silverberg, Matthew Bierbaum, James P. Sethna, Itai Cohen

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Given the diversity of research in the CM group, chosen topics vary widely. We tend to stick to high-impact journals - Nature, Science, PNAS and PRL have been popular - but this is not prescriptive..

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