Safety expert shares oddly compelling tutorial on how to survive a deadly crowd crush
It's all about protecting the heart and lungs.
High-density crowds can quickly become dangerous.
From concerts to festivals to parades, people love to gather together in shared experiences. Crowds, however, can go from "Oh, there's lots of people here" to a dangerous or even deadly situation without much warning.
The world was shocked and saddened by the news of a Halloween festival crowd crush that killed more than 150 people in South Korea, with officials left debating what safety measures could have prevented such a tragedy. The risk of a deadly surge is always present in high-density crowds, so it's good to know what individuals can do to protect themselves if they find themselves trapped in a wave of people.
Crowd safety expert Paul Wertheimer started going to rock concerts and diving into mosh pits in his 40s, not because he was into Slayer or Metallica or Pantera, but because he wanted to analyze crowd behavior through firsthand experience. He's now been studying crowds for three decades and has sage advice for what to do if you find yourself in a crowd crush situation.
The first thing to do, he says, is to create an exit strategy right off the bat. Look for exit signs and listen to your instincts. The time to leave a crowd is when you first start to feel uncomfortable, not once a crowd starts to surge.
Once you're pinned into a crowd crush, it can be nearly impossible to get out. The pressure from being surrounded by bodies pressing into you can be thousands of pounds, which is what leads people to suffocate. People often mistakenly think crowd crushes become deadly due to people being trampled, but that's not usually the case. Trampling generally happens in a stampede, in which people panic and run over one another, but in a stampede, there's actually room to move. In a crowd crush, people get jammed so tightly together there's no space to move individually at all.
Both stampedes and crowd crushes can be deadly, and Wertheimer shared tips for surviving both with ABC News after a scare at a Washington, D.C., Pride parade in 2019. Using a Mardi Gras crowd as a "for instance," Wertheimer walked Matt Gutman and students from Loyola University New Orleans through changing their body position when stuck in a crowd to stay safer.
"Trust your Spidey sense" is pretty much always good advice. Most people don't anticipate being trapped in a crowd surge, but it's a real risk in any high-density crowd situation. If you haven't managed to get out in time and you find yourself squashed into a human river unable to escape, try to protect your lungs and heart by holding your arms in front of you. If a crowd is tight enough, your arms may not be enough to protect you, but doing this will give you a fighting chance.
Concerts and festivals can be a lot of fun for a lot of people. Knowing how to spot crowd trouble and what to do if a surge happens can help you enjoy those collective experiences with fellow humans more safely.
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There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
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Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."