The Cascade Effect’s Application to Recent Events
On November 7, 2021, at Cornell University, there was a bomb threat that incited mass fear and chaos across campus residents. However, the events that unfolded were not proportional to the signals that were given to Cornellians due to cascade effects. In this situation, the direct signals that were given to everyone were the Cornell ALERT text messages and calls from the Cornell University Police Department. Per the article, the first signal was “CornellALERT for the Ithaca campus: Avoid central campus. Evacuate areas in or nearby the Law School, Goldwin Smith, Upson Hall and Kennedy Hall. Additional information will be provided as it becomes available.”
This signal was not private because it was widely distributed. The information was vague, telling everyone to evacuate only specific buildings and originally not explaining why. However, panic began to ensue when every group chat began to spread different information. There was a photoshopped screenshot circulating around saying that there was an active shooter on campus, that the police had uncovered legitimate bomb fragments and a stockpile of firearms, and that there was a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his chest.
Not everyone received this information, so in a way, the information was private to some. On west campus, I saw people evacuating their buildings even when not instructed to do so by the signal from CUPD I received. The people who did not receive information outside of what CUPD sent out were watching the actions of others reacting much more dramatically than they were instructed to by CUPD. It makes sense that watching other people evacuate their dormitories would instill fear in people who did not know why they were doing so, and cause a mass exodus for people who could access cars. This occurred even before the third Cornell ALERT message was released; the one that specified that there was a bomb threat. Per the article, the message was “CornellALERT: for the Ithaca campus. Police received a call of bombs being placed in the Law School, Goldwin Smith, Upson Hall and Kennedy Hall.”
Access to the external information was also dependent on connections and bridges– different information, whether it be true or false, reached different subgroups. Also, a lot of the information that was circulated that day stemmed from a cascade failure: the false information spread rapidly through social networks, and caused a slew of disproportionate actions.
Update: Cornell concludes investigation into bomb threats made via phone call, operations resume