Group processes in emergency evacuation

Dr Anne Templeton and Dr Yunhe Tong discuss recent research into the importance of group processes in emergency evacuations. When considering how people will react in evacuations, planners presume which information people will attend to, whose instructions they will follow, which evacuation routes they will take, and how long they will spend before initiating evacuation. To understand these reactions, much research has focused on important issues affecting evacuation behaviour such as how clear the evacuation guidance is, how much knowledge the evacuees have about the environment, and how relevant evacuees believe a threat is to them personally