Title
The Influence of National Culture on Evacuation Response Behaviour and Time: An Agent-Based Approach
Author
Van Damme, E.R.I.
van der Wal, C.N. (TU Delft System Engineering)
Hofstede, Gert Jan (Wageningen University & Research; North-West University)
Brazier, F.M. (TU Delft System Engineering) 
Contributor
Lorig, Fabian (editor)
Norling, Emma (editor)
Date
2023
Abstract
“How does culture, in combination with cues, settings and affiliation, influence response-phase behaviour and time and total evacuation time?”. A questionnaire and an agent-based model for a case study of a library evacuation in Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey and the UK have been developed to answer this question. Our questionnaire, conducted among 442 respondents (N = 105 from Czech Republic, N = 106 from Poland, N = 106 from Turkey and N = 125 from the United Kingdom), shows significant differences in the number of performed response tasks per culture - whereby Turkish respondents perform the most response tasks and British the least - and the results were directly implemented in our agent-based model. Simulation results show: (1) these differences - in combination with emergent effects for task choice and agent interactions - directly translate into the average response and evacuation times being highest for Turkey, followed by Poland, Czech Republic, and the UK, (2) cues, setting and affiliation influence response and evacuation time - such as being informed by staff giving a negative correlation and evacuating in groups a positive correlation with response time -, while the magnitude of these effects differ per culture. Our results suggest that faster response times might be related to dimensions of national culture, such as weak uncertainty avoidance and high individualism.
Subject
Agent-based model
Cross-cultural
Evacuation modelling
Evacuation response behaviour
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:996652a2-edc0-453f-a288-cbf1d748e327
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22947-3_4
Publisher
Springer
Embargo date
2023-07-12
ISBN
9783031229466
Source
Multi-Agent-Based Simulation XXIII - 23rd International Workshop, MABS 2022, Revised Selected Papers
Event
23rd International Workshop on Multi-Agent-Based Simulation, MABS 2022, collocated with the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, AAMAS 2022, 2022-05-08 → 2022-05-09, Virtual, Online
Series
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 0302-9743, 13743 LNAI
Bibliographical note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Part of collection
Institutional Repository
Document type
conference paper
Rights
© 2023 E.R.I. Van Damme, C.N. van der Wal, Gert Jan Hofstede, F.M. Brazier