What is it about?
I use behavioral and experimental economics to propose an experimental design to compare how evacuation instructions is translated into actions when humans: 1) are isolated, 2) can observe nearby peers’ behavior (e.g see their neighbor), 3) can have 1-on-1 conversations (e.g phone call), and 4) can broadcast messages to the entire community (e.g tweet).
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Why is it important?
People are much more likely to follow evacuation instructions, or conversely, disregard them, when others do so. Rapid communication capacity can therefore quickly turn isolated instances of both compliance and noncompliance into the prevailing norm. This design allows policy makers to test the impact of utilizing social influence to improve evacuation outcomes with human subjects.
Perspectives
More peer-to-peer communication could lead to better self-organization in evacuation, but this is thus far still an assumption about peer effects that needs to be tested. I hope this article encourages policy makers and technologists to stop and clarify their underlying assumptions about human behavior before implementing new emergency systems.
Dr. Sera Linardi
University of Pittsburgh
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Peer coordination and communication following disaster warnings: An experimental framework, Safety Science, December 2016, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2016.03.017.
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