People behave like sheep in emergencies!

Researchers at Leeds University said their work - examining how large numbers of individuals subconsciously follow just a small minority in a group - could have important practical applications, especially in the management of disaster situations.

The team, led by Professor Jens Krause, conducted a series of experiments in which volunteers were told to walk randomly around a large hall without talking to each other. A select few were then given more detailed instructions.

The results revealed that it only took a minority of just 5% to influence a crowd's direction. The remaining 95% followed without realising it.

Prof Krause, from the university's Faculty of Biological Sciences, said: "There are many situations where this information could be used to good effect.

"At one extreme, it could be used to inform emergency planning strategies and at the other, it could be useful in organising pedestrian flow in busy areas."

Easily led

Prof Krause said that in all the experiments the "informed individuals" were followed by the crowd. He said they formed a "self-organising, snake-like structure".

He added: "We've all been in situations where we get swept along by the crowd, but what's interesting about this research is that our participants ended up making a consensus decision despite the fact that they weren't allowed to talk or gesture to one another.

"In most cases the participants didn't realise they were being led by others."

The researchers varied the size of the crowd and the relative number of "informed individuals". They found that with crowds of 200 or more, 5% of the group was enough to influence the direction in which it travelled.

The research was published in the journal Animal Behaviour.