Skip to ContentSkip to Navigation
About us Latest news News News articles

University of Groningen wants to predict unrest

17 January 2014

This week, Groningen is in the spotlight. There are new actions and demonstations every day, but is it going to get quieter from now on or escalate? These kinds of tipping points in complex social developments are hard to predict, which is why the University of Groningen is researching the ‘wisdom of crowds’. Do you know what is going to happen? Join in!

‘It’s not hard to predict whether people are prepared to take to the streets’, says professor of social psychology Tom Postmes.  ‘We wrote a short book in 2013 designed to increase insight into and understanding of social unrest.’

In brief, there are three reasons to take action. The first is that you have to have a group of people with a ‘we’ feeling. In the jargon that’s ‘shared social identity’. The second is that the members of the group must experience injustice or moral outrage – ‘they’ are wrong. The third is that they need to feel that the protest will have an effect.

All three of these conditions are satisfied in Groningen: Groningers are united, outraged and they are being listened to. But we still understand far too little about the changes from moment to moment – these three conditions do not explain why unrest can suddenly escalate or evaporate. So join in our research!

Last modified:13 March 2020 02.18 a.m.
View this page in: Nederlands

More news

  • 10 September 2024

    Picking the wrong one again and again

    Julie Karsten is researching how experiences involving sexual misconduct influence adolescents’ online choice of partner. She specifically focuses on the question of whether people who have previously been ‘perpetrator’ or ‘victim’ look for one...

  • 09 September 2024

    People with psychosis often victims of violence

    People with psychosis are much more likely to become victims of violence and crime than the general population. This is revealed in the PhD research of Bertine de Vries, which she will defend at the University of Groningen on September 19.

  • 05 September 2024

    ERC Starting Grants for two UG researchers

    Two UG researches, both working at the Faculty of Science and Engineering, have been awarded an ERC Starting Grant: Jingxiu Xie and Gosia Wlodarczyk-Biegun. The European Research Council's (ERC) Starting Grants consist of €1.5 million each, for a...