Search

The article investigates whether third-party intervention influences the continuation of antagonist conflict behaviour in interpersonal conflicts. The analysis is based on a systematic coding of video footage of real-life conflicts from the streets of Amsterdam. A panel data analysis shows that intervention leads to discontinuation of conflict behaviour. The analysis furthermore finds that while physically forceful intervention stops conflict behaviour, expressions of disapproval have no noticeable effect. The social relationship between third parties and antagonists does not appear to matter for this effect. Third parties thus play an integral part in the development of interpersonal conflicts, but this influence depends on how they intervene. Future preventive efforts should emphasize that intervention works but must be performed in certain ways to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal ethologists suggest that non-human primates console victims of aggression in a manner similar to humans. However, the empirical basis for this cross-species comparison is fragile, given that few studies have examined consolation behavior among humans. To address this gap, we revive and apply the underappreciated ethological branch of micro-sociology, which advocates the study of human interactions by applying ethological observation techniques. We thus systematically observed naturally occurring human consolation captured by video surveillance cameras in the aftermath of violent public assaults. Consistent with prior human and non-human primate research, social affiliation promoted consolatory helping. By contrast, we found no main effect of sex. A further exploratory analysis indicated an interaction effect between social affiliation and sex, with female affiliates having the largest probability of providing consolation. We discuss implications for the cross-species study of primate consolation and advocate that micro-sociology should reappraise ethological perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Third parties tend to take an active role and intervene in interpersonal conflicts in public. Previous research has shown that the level of aggression of these interventions determines how they influence the conflict. No previous study has, however, systematically investigated whether the aggression of third-party interventions is influenced by the development of the conflict situation. The objective of this study is twofold. First, the study determines the extent to which the aggression level of intervening third parties changes during the course of interpersonal conflicts. Second, the study identifies and investigates the factors that affect the aggression levels displayed by intervening third parties. We systematically observed and coded CCTV footage of 46 interpersonal conflicts in public space, recorded by surveillance cameras in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The data included 565 intervention behaviors by 125 third parties. We recorded the levels of aggression of the individuals involved in the conflict and conducted a multinomial logistic regression analysis to investigate what influenced the aggression level of the third-party interventions. We found that the aggression levels of the preceding intervention behaviors by the third parties predict aggression levels of their subsequent interventions. This shows a consistency in third-party interventions over the course of a conflict. We also found that the aggression levels of the conflict parties that are the targets of the interventions influence the aggression levels of third-party intervention. This finding demonstrates that the development of the conflict situation influences how aggressive the third parties are. Our study emphasizes the importance of taking the interactional dynamics of interpersonal conflicts into consideration when explaining third-party behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guardians are a potential resource of conflict de-escalation but we still know little about their actual behaviour. In this article we investigate whom among the antagonists a guardian selects as a target when they intervene in an interpersonal conflict. We investigate this using CCTV footage from Amsterdam (the Netherlands) of 46 interpersonal conflicts in public spaces involving 641 interventions by 176 individuals. We find that guardians are more likely to target antagonists: (1) who have performed the most aggressive behaviours, (2) who are not simultaneously targeted by other guardians, (3) who are from their own social group, (4) who are men. The analysis shows that the behaviour of intervening guardians is shaped by multiple aspects of the complex and often ambiguous conflict situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most countries in the world have recommended or mandated face masks in some or all public places during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, mask use has been thought to increase people's face-touching frequency and thus risk of self-inoculation. Across two studies, we video-observed the face-touching behaviour of members of the public in Amsterdam and Rotterdam (the Netherlands) during the first wave of the pandemic. Study 1 (n = 383) yielded evidence in favour of the absence of an association between mask-wearing and face-touching (defined as touches of face or mask), and Study 2 (n = 421) replicated this result. Secondary outcome analysis of the two studies--analysed separately and with pooled data sets--evidenced a negative association between mask-wearing and hand contact with the face and its t-zone (i.e. eyes, nose and mouth). In sum, the current findings alleviate the concern that mask-wearing has an adverse face-touching effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are individuals willing to intervene in public violence? Half a century of research on the "bystander effect" suggests that the more bystanders present at an emergency, the less likely each of them is to provide help. However, recent meta-analytical evidence questions whether this effect generalizes to violent emergencies. Besides the number of bystanders present, an alternative line of research suggests that pre-existing social relations between bystanders and conflict participants are important for explaining whether bystanders provide help. The current paper offers a rare comparison of both factors-social relations and the number of bystanders present-as predictors of bystander intervention in real-life violent emergencies. We systematically observed the behavior of 764 bystanders across 81 violent incidents recorded by surveillance cameras in Copenhagen, Denmark. Bystanders were sampled with a case-control design, their behavior was observed and coded, and the probability of intervention was estimated with multilevel regression analyses. The results confirm our predicted association between social relations and intervention. However, rather than the expected reversed bystander effect, we found a classical bystander effect, as bystanders were less likely to intervene with increasing bystander presence. The effect of social relations on intervention was larger in magnitude than the effect of the number of bystanders. We assess these findings in light of recent discussions about the influence of group size and social relations in human helping. Further, we discuss the utility of video data for the assessment of real-life bystander behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about how bouncer–patron interactions may influence a bouncer's use of physical aggression. To address this gap, we offer a micro-interactional analysis examining real-life aggressive bouncer behavior captured by venue surveillance cameras. Quantitative results show that bouncer physical aggression is associated with interactions in which bouncers are directly involved as a conflict party, but not with interactions where they solely intervene as a third-party. Further, a qualitative analysis of emotional cues identifies anger as a plausible mechanism underpinning bouncer aggression. We consider the implications of these findings for night-time economy violence prevention strategies and discuss the relevance of video data for barroom research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caseworkers in welfare organisations play a pivotal part in the production of performance information (PI), since the information they record determines the quality of the PI. Previous studies have demonstrated how tasks that are considered illegitimate are stressful for the professionals performing them and are not performed properly. Caseworkers' perception of the PI, which their recordings feed into, must therefore be of great importance with regard to how the caseworkers perform the task of recording. From a qualitative study of the production and use of PI in municipal disability services in Denmark, we gained insight into how caseworkers perceived the purposes of PI. We conclude that PI used in the planning of services to meet clients' needs is recognised as a legitimate purpose. The distance between the manager and caseworkers seems to be important for the degree of understanding of the purpose of the tasks: The shorter the distance, the more understanding. Furthermore, caseworkers also see more subjective purposes of doing the recordings properly. Firstly, it makes management aware of the size of their workload. Secondly, the recordings serve as a documentation tool, which can be useful when clients file complaints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]