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

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Abstract

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.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. London Metropolitan University, London, England

    Chris Cocking

  2. St. Andrews University, Fife, Scotland

    Steve Reicher & Danielle Graham

  3. University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England

    Andy Burton & Paul Langston

  4. RMIT University, Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

    Damian Schofield

  5. School of Psychology, University of Sussex, BN1 9QH, Falmer, Brighton, England

    John Drury & Andrew Hardwick

Authors
  1. John Drury
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  2. Chris Cocking
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  3. Steve Reicher
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  4. Andy Burton
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  5. Damian Schofield
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  6. Andrew Hardwick
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  7. Danielle Graham
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  8. Paul Langston
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Drury.

Additional information

The research described in this report was made possible by Grant RES-000-23-0446 from the Economic and Social Research Council awarded to J.D. (University of Sussex), S.R. (St. Andrews University), P.L. (University of Nottingham), and D.S. (RMIT University).

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Drury, J., Cocking, C., Reicher, S. et al. Cooperation versus competition in a mass emergency evacuation: A new laboratory simulation and a new theoretical model. Behavior Research Methods 41, 957–970 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.3.957

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.3.957

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