The influence of emergency signage on building evacuation behavior: An experimental study

TLDR

Emergency signage is crucial for safe evacuation, yet little is known about how its effectiveness differs between individuals and groups. The study investigates how individuals and groups detect and accept emergency signage information during building evacuation. One hundred nineteen volunteers participated in individual and group evacuation trials with six decision points, and post‑trial questionnaires and video recordings were used to assess route choice conformity to signage and decision times. Signage detection and acceptance were higher for individuals than groups due to social influence, high‑placed signs improved route choice especially for individuals, and decision times were not consistently shorter when following signs, highlighting implications for group evacuation modeling and signage design.

Abstract

Summary Emergency signage is important for safe escape when unexpected events (such as fires) occur. However, there are limited data on the difference in the effect of emergency signage on way finding processes between individual and group conditions. This paper aims to reveal how participants alone or in groups detect and accept the information conveyed by a signage system through an experiment in buildings. One hundred nineteen volunteers participated in the experiment, which included individual and group evacuation conditions. There were six decision points along the movement path where participants could select egress routes according to signage. Posttrial questionnaires and video recordings were used to derive the number of participants whose route choice was according to signage and to derive the decision time. Results demonstrate that both signage detection and acceptance probabilities under individual conditions are larger than those under group situations, because of social influence in groups. High‐placed signs have a positive effect on route choice, especially under individual conditions. Decision time for participants whose decisions are principally according to signs is not always smaller than that for participants whose decisions are not according to signs, eg, in group situations. These findings have implications for group evacuation modeling and signage design in buildings.