Towards more realism in pedestrian behaviour models: First steps and considerations in formalising social identity

Agent-based models of group behaviour often lack evidence-based psychological reasons for the behaviour. Similarly, pedestrian behaviour models focus on modelling physical movement while ignoring the psychological reasons leading to those movements (or other relevant behaviours). To improve realism, we need to be able to reflect behaviour as a consequence of feeling part of a psychological group, so we better understand why collective behaviour occurs under different circumstances. The social identity approach has been recognised as a way of understanding within and between group dynamics, as well as the processes that make an individual act as a group member. However, as promising the social identity approach is, the formalisation is a challenging endeavour since different choices can be made to reflect the core concepts and processes. We therefore in this paper elaborate on a few of these formalisation challenges and the choices we made. To support the formalisation and use of social identity approach and finally for the increased realism in group behaviour models, such as pedestrian models that are so heavily used to manage real world crowds.