Experimental Study on Panic during Simulated Fire Evacuation Using Psycho- and Physiological Metrics

Abstract

Under circumstances of fire, panic usually brings uncertainty and unpredictability to evacuation. Therefore, a deep understanding of panic is desired. This study aims to dig into the underlying mechanism of fire evacuation panic by measuring and analysing psycho- and physiological indicators. In the experiment, participants watched a simulated train station within which three sets of stimuli were triggered separately. Eye movement and brain haemodynamic responses were collected during the watch, while questionnaires and interviews of emotions were conducted after. The analysed physiological indicators include the amplitude of pupil dilation, the time ratios of fixation and saccade, the binned entropy of gaze location, and the brain activation coefficients. The results of this research indicate that fire evacuation panic can be broken down into two elements. (1) Unawareness of situation: less knowledge of the situation leads to a higher level of panic; (2) Intensity of visual stimulation: the panic level is escalated with increased severity of fire that is perceived.

An extended social force model on unidirectional flow considering psychological and behavioral impacts of hazard source

“…The psychological state of pedestrians is receiving elevated attention in evacuation studies, [25][26][27][28][29][30] and ultimately affects their behavioral patterns. Apart from the physical effects such as casualties, heat and/or the hindrance on visibility, the hazard source has an impact on the psychological state of the pedestrians.…”