Research on the public mourning after Queen Elizabeth II's death offers new insights on how groups or crowds of people with a shared identity – in this case ‘Britishness’ – navigate periods of change and uncertainty.

Psychologists from multiple universities across the UK including Canterbury Christ Church University, Keele University and The Open University, explored how those who queued to pay their respects in London and Edinburgh collectively navigated her death.

They say the findings could help inform how politicians might navigate periods of change in the future. The research has just been published in the British Journal of Social Psychology.

The paper forms part of a larger project that explores who took part in the events following the monarch’s death, how they experienced their participation, and the impact it had on their understanding of themselves and their Britishness.

The queue

When Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022 after 70 years on the throne, more than 250,000 people queued to file past her coffin in London’s Westminster Hall.

Four days after her passing, researchers spoke to people as they queued to pay their respects to the monarch in Edinburgh and London.

In studying “the queue” researchers wanted to understand more about the social and cultural significance of this period of uncertainty, as well as the importance of the monarchy – and this loss – to their shared identity.

Dr Sandra Obradović, a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the OU, and lead author of the research paper under the guidance of Dr Sara Vestergren from Keele’s School of Psychology, said: “When we think about crowds, we often think about the ‘disruptive’ one, the ones that come together to challenge the status quo.

“In this project, we had an opportunity to study a different kind of crowd, one that comes together to assert the status quo, something particularly important in a moment of rupture, that opens a space for change.”

Findings

The researchers discovered people placed a huge significance on the Queen’s death and that it created an “in between” state in the public consciousness – a concept known as ‘liminality’.

In dealing with the collective loss, experts discovered that it prompted people to reflect on what the monarchy’s significance is to the British national identity.

Those they interviewed talked of the Queen being a representative of “Britishness”, and her death as a loss to the British national identity.

Others discussed the value of the monarchy as an apolitical and unifying feature in an otherwise divided society.

Klara Jurstakova, Lecturer in Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University, helped to collect and analyse data from the crowds in both Edinburgh and London during the Queen’s lying in state.

It was an interesting project to be part of, since as researchers, we got to experience ‘The Queue’ ourselves, and we were able to collect rich data. We often tend to think about crowds negatively, however, as previous research shows, crowds are not mindless, but they have a specific meaning to the people that are part of them. This publication, which understands the Queen’s passing as a ‘liminal’ moment, or a moment of rupture in time, is part of a wider research project where we explore British national identity during the mourning period, particularly in the crowds that gathered as a response to the Queen’s passing away. The people who were part of the crowd described Queen’s death as a loss to the British national identity.
Klara Jurstakova Lecturer in Psychology

Dr Sara Vestergren, Lecturer in Psychology at Keele University, said: “It has been a privilege to be part of, and study, these events as they unfolded. As psychologists we were very excited to share these findings on how crowds like these transform people, create a hegemony, and how they define and develop British identity.”

Other universities involved in the study include St Andrews, Heriott-Watt, Keele, Sussex, Strathclyde and Bath.

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