University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Cooperation versus competition in a mass emergency evacuation: a new laboratory simulation and a new theoretical model

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 18:00 authored by John DruryJohn Drury, Chris Cocking, Steve Reicher, Andy Burton, Damian Schofield, Andrew Hardwick, Danielle Graham, Paul Langston
Virtual reality technology is argued to be suitable to the simulation study of mass evacuation behavior, because of the practical and ethical constraints in researching this field. This article describes three studies in which a new virtual reality paradigm was used, in which participants had to escape from a burning underground rail station. Study 1 was carried out in an immersion laboratory and demonstrated that collective identification in the crowd was enhanced by the (shared) threat embodied in emergency itself. In Study 2, high-identification participants were more helpful and pushed less than did low-identification participants. In Study 3, identification and group size were experimentally manipulated, and similar results were obtained. These results support a hypothesis according to which (emergent) collective identity motivates solidarity with strangers. It is concluded that the virtual reality technology developed here represents a promising start, although more can be done to embed it in a traditional psychology laboratory setting.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Behavior Research Methods

ISSN

1554-3528

Publisher

Psychonomic Society

Issue

3

Volume

41

Page range

957-970

Pages

14.0

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC