Psychosocial models and evacuation behavior

Early psychosocial models suggested that irrational panic was a generic reaction to collective threat. However, in the literature there are numerous examples of co-operation and even helping behaviours amongst crowd participants escaping from danger. However, rather than risks being associated with over-reaction in emergencies, the danger often lies within people’s under-reactions. Studies of behaviour in fires has found that rather than evacuating at the first sign of danger (such as a fire alarm going off, or the appearance of smoke) people often delay their escape, preferring to wait for cues from others. Other research has argued that existing norms of social behaviour often endure during emergencies. Even at the moments of greatest urgency, and when there was more individual competition, social bonds did not collapse entirely. For example, people were more likely to help the elderly than others, and family units continued to function. More recently, Mawson’s affiliation approach to behaviour in emergencies has suggested that when threatened, we seek familiarity rather than simply evacuate, and that the presence of familiar others has a calming effect. Drury and colleagues elaborated examined the extent to which a shared social identity might encourage such co-operative behaviours, and hence more efficient collective escape. We will present literature review and some data from Italy. We will also mention at the implications of these theoretical models and empirical evidence in the rescue workers practices to enhance safe and efficient evacuations of large numbers of people.