Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on citizen compliance in emergencies
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Philosophy Psychology & Language
Abstract
Research on chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear emergencies suggests that citizens engage in protective health behaviours quicker and have higher compliance when they perceive first responders to be in the same group as them. However, further work needs to address how communication strategies can create the perception that first responders are in the same group to facilitate this compliance. Research in social psychology can provide key tools to increase effective communication from First Responders through increased trust. The Social Identity Approach explains how collective behaviour emerges as a group process, through categorising people as "ingroup" (same social group) or "outgroup" (different social group) members. It demonstrates how the public can quickly self-organise safe behaviour in emergencies, have increased trust in ingroup members, and are more influenced by ingroup members than those outside the group.
In sudden onset emergencies such as fires and marauding firearm attacks, there can be limited time in which to convey messages to the public. Establishing the most effective communication methods to encourage safe behaviour is of vital importance. Pedestrian models provide a key tool for overseeing resilience in emergencies. They can model both individual and collective behaviour that enables the simulation of group and individual actions. Using this method, I can ask why and how behaviour emerges by exploring the underlying psychological mechanisms. Crucially, I can model social connections between first responders and citizens based on evidence from social psychological research and first responder experiences. However, few models have incorporated the social psychological principles that make collective behaviour possible: perceptions of others as being fellow group members. Current pedestrian evacuation models have limited accuracy because they do not include group behaviour, and at present none of the models include group processes between First Responders and the public to determine how they influence behaviour in emergencies
This project will ascertain the psychological underpinnings of behaviour in emergencies using online studies and a controlled laboratory experiment. I will to explore the effects of first responder communication approaches on route choice in emergencies to determine the behavioural consequences of first responder communication practices on citizen compliance. I will ascertain how to 1) increase effective first responder communication strategies in emergencies through experiments using adapted existing communication approaches and hypotheses testing in pedestrian models, and 2) improve simulations of evacuation behaviour by incorporating social psychological factors that influence decision-making into a pedestrian model to advise emergency planning.
By adapting current first responder best practices into social psychological experiments on emergency behaviour, I will identify improvements for best practices that facilitate higher citizen compliance. This project will identify (in)effective emergency-related communication practices from first responders to citizens. Ultimately, I will incorporate expertise from civil protection and social psychology to create guidance for first responders and a pedestrian model that includes important social psychological factors influencing behaviour in emergencies. This will enable us to create evidence-based guidance and models for first responder organisations that will assist with planning the best response to facilitate citizen compliance and increase safety. Thus, I will enhance understanding of group relations and risk factors in evacuations, and improve current procedures to deliver evidence-based enhancements to public safety in disaster situations.
In sudden onset emergencies such as fires and marauding firearm attacks, there can be limited time in which to convey messages to the public. Establishing the most effective communication methods to encourage safe behaviour is of vital importance. Pedestrian models provide a key tool for overseeing resilience in emergencies. They can model both individual and collective behaviour that enables the simulation of group and individual actions. Using this method, I can ask why and how behaviour emerges by exploring the underlying psychological mechanisms. Crucially, I can model social connections between first responders and citizens based on evidence from social psychological research and first responder experiences. However, few models have incorporated the social psychological principles that make collective behaviour possible: perceptions of others as being fellow group members. Current pedestrian evacuation models have limited accuracy because they do not include group behaviour, and at present none of the models include group processes between First Responders and the public to determine how they influence behaviour in emergencies
This project will ascertain the psychological underpinnings of behaviour in emergencies using online studies and a controlled laboratory experiment. I will to explore the effects of first responder communication approaches on route choice in emergencies to determine the behavioural consequences of first responder communication practices on citizen compliance. I will ascertain how to 1) increase effective first responder communication strategies in emergencies through experiments using adapted existing communication approaches and hypotheses testing in pedestrian models, and 2) improve simulations of evacuation behaviour by incorporating social psychological factors that influence decision-making into a pedestrian model to advise emergency planning.
By adapting current first responder best practices into social psychological experiments on emergency behaviour, I will identify improvements for best practices that facilitate higher citizen compliance. This project will identify (in)effective emergency-related communication practices from first responders to citizens. Ultimately, I will incorporate expertise from civil protection and social psychology to create guidance for first responders and a pedestrian model that includes important social psychological factors influencing behaviour in emergencies. This will enable us to create evidence-based guidance and models for first responder organisations that will assist with planning the best response to facilitate citizen compliance and increase safety. Thus, I will enhance understanding of group relations and risk factors in evacuations, and improve current procedures to deliver evidence-based enhancements to public safety in disaster situations.
Publications
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Amos M.
(2023)
A dynamic state-based model of crowds
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Cocking C.
(2024)
Major incidents, pandemics and mental health
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Mayr CM
(2023)
Designing mobile application messages to impact route choice: A survey and simulation study.
in PloS one
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Roach A
(2024)
What are concert crowds like
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Scholz G
(2023)
Social Agents? A Systematic Review of Social Identity Formalizations
in Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
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Wijermans N
(2023)
Editorial: Social Identity Modelling
in Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
Description | The most significant achievements from the first year of our project stem from two main activities. First, in our comprehensive systematic review of the evacuation agent-based model literature, we gained novel insights into how evacuation agent-based models simulate social interactions and communication approaches between agents, and which key variables are used in these models. We established that the categories of social interactions included: 1) basic collision avoidance, 2) following behaviour, and 3) variations of social influence. Within the models, communications was operationalised: 1) spatially either through agents creating trails of information in the environment, 2) spatially though agents informing others within a set distance around them, 3) through social networks such as information-sharing between members of same groups, or 4) through external communication shared to certain spatial areas. We also established the most common independent and dependent variables used in the literature and showcase emerging trends in focus over time. The systematic review provided an overview of current evacuation agent-based models regarding agent communication, and evaluated the sophistication of their assumptions considering findings from empirical research on public response to emergencies. Based on the review, we were able to begin conceptualisation of social behaviour and communication between agents in our own models. This will help us reach objective 2 of the project, i.e., developing evidence-based models of behaviour in emergencies that simulate evacuation behaviour and citizen compliance based on first responders' communication strategies. The second activity involved our interviews with operational staff in the ambulance services and fire and rescue services. We conducted 18 in-depth individual interviews with operational staff in fire and rescue services and ambulance services across Scotland and England. We identified their views on the most and least effective ways to communicate with members of the public when asking them to follow instructions in emergencies. We explored the factors staff felt influenced how members of the public reacted to them in emergencies, why staff took specific approaches to communicating with the public in emergencies and key challenges faced in emergencies. Regarding the influential factors, operational first responders believed that the public's likelihood of following their guidance was influenced by the public's awareness of threat and need for action, their trust in the first responder organisation, and tone of the first responders' communication when giving instructions. Regarding the communication tones, the most prominent and preferred approach by staff was to use a facilitative tone where they asked members of the public to perform an action in a way that framed the public as helping the staff. For example, saying "can you do that for me?" or "it would really help us if". This tone was seen to garner the most adherence, help the members of the public feel they had more agency in the emergency, facilitate the public need to help, and appeal to the public on a personal level. The tone consistently least preferred was described as "authoritarian" and included giving short, direct orders with minimal contextual information, such as telling someone "you must move" without explaining why. This was believed to be a somewhat aggressive approach that resulted in defensiveness and/or reluctant adherence from a recipient, as well as broader loss of trust in the first responder organisation. Finally, staff reported creating a tone of teamwork by using collective language such as "let's talk about what we're going to do here" and thanking individuals for their contribution in the emergency response. This was a less used method but was perceived to be effective because it helped members of public feel part of the team in the emergency and therefore engage members of the public to perform tasks, help to maintain calm in the emergency, and reassure the members of the public about how they reacted. However, it was viewed as difficult to do in a mass incident with multiple people, and sometimes a time-consuming process which made it difficult in many emergencies when reducing danger was first their priority. Throughout the interviews, staff noted operational challenges in providing information to members of the public, such as needing to maintain confidentiality. They also raised an increasing challenge of navigating getting the public to help in emergencies, and ensuring the first responder organisations had a strong, trusted voice on social media channels. Based on the interviews, we are now starting to pilot online evacuation experiments where we alter the wording and tone of the instructions given by first responders (currently fire and rescue services) to see the effect they have on adherence to route choice, evacuation time, views of the instructions, and views of the responders providing the instructions. Together the interviews and evacuation experiments will help us to achieve objective 1 of the project, i.e., using social psychological experiments to improve simulations of compliance in emergencies, focused on how the communication strategy from first responders and citizens influences compliance, and objective 3 to optimise current first responder communication in emergencies. |
Exploitation Route | The findings from our systematic review are pre-registered on the Open Science Framework and will be presented to the Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics conference in June 2023. We will also submit the journal paper to Safety Science and make our data available on the Open Science Framework, and showcase the findings on our project website and social media channels. The findings from our interviews with first responders will be fed back to our stakeholders in first responder organisations and UK and Scottish governments via a summary report, and we are presenting the findings at the European Association of Social Psychology conference in July 2023. We plan to publish the findings in emergency medicine or social psychology journals, as well as trade outlets, and will make all interview transcripts available on the Open Science Framework once anonymisation is completed. We will also showcase the findings on our project website and social media channels. |
Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Government Democracy and Justice Security and Diplomacy |
Title | Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on citizen adherence in emergencies - Systematic Review |
Description | UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship aimed at understanding how and why members of the public respond to instructions from first responders in emergencies. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship aimed at understanding how and why members of the public respond to instructions from first responders in emergencies. |
URL | https://osf.io/8k4xf |
Description | Member of a steering group |
Organisation | Cabinet Office |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | I contributed to the development of a trial into clinical messaging capability to encourage bystander first aid in emergencies. |
Collaborator Contribution | I contributed to the development of an official sensitive trial into clinical messaging capability to encourage bystander first aid in emergencies. This involved attending a COBR meeting to discuss the design of the trail, as well as providing input into the messages used in the trial. I also created the post-trial survey to assess the clarity of the messages, and will analyse the data in April 2023 which will be fed back to stakeholders such as the Cabinet Office, UK Health Security Agency and ambulance services. |
Impact | N/A - in progress. |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | 'The (mis)use of controversial terminologies in evacuation research', presentation to the working group on Human Behaviour in International Association for Fire Safety Science: Human Behaviour in Fires Working Group, online |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Templeton, A. (2022). 'The (mis)use of controversial terminologies in evacuation research'. Presented to the working group on Human Behaviour in International Association for Fire Safety Science: Human Behaviour in Fires Working Group, online, Feb 2022 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | 9th General Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology. Krakow, Poland |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Hinata, S., Templeton, A. & Rhodes, H. (2023, July 1). Interactions between the public and emergency services/government agencies in disasters: A systematic review. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | A dynamic state-based model of crowds |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation at a Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics Conference. Eindhoven, Netherlands |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | A talk 'Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on public behaviour in emergencies', at Public Response to Perceived Threats seminar, London |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Templeton, A. (2023, January 11). talk 'Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on public behaviour in emergencies', at Public Response to Perceived Threats seminar, London, project - http://www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology/crowdsidentities/projects/stampedes |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | http://www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology/crowdsidentities/projects/stampedes |
Description | BBC World Service - Crowd Science Podcast - 'How do we behave in crowds? |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Templeton, A. (2022, November 25). 'How do we behave in crowds?' BBC World Service - Crowd Science podcast. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3j7v |
Description | BPS SPS Early Career Research Award talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | PS SPS Early Career Research Award talk, 'Using social psychological theory and methods to inform models of collective behaviour for crowd management' given at the BPS Social Psychology Section 2022 Annual Conference, London, UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | FireCo Webinar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This webinar titled 'Using social psychology to understand evacuee behaviour' was watched by over 200 practitioners and academics in emergency management and evacuation guidance. This led to ongoing discussions about how to integrate social psychology processes into plans for emergency evacuations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.fireco.uk/project/using-social-psychology-to-understand-evacuee-behaviour/ |
Description | High-rise fire safety: A study into the information residents receive. HQN podcast |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | HQN Podcasts |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Hl5FUvQQj03KkdLIFnUCS?si=tKbziKKvQAmy7r8IPkSHdg&nd=1 |
Description | Interview for the Fire Safety Show podcast |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I was interviewed for the Fire Safety Show, episode 'More realism in evacuation modelling with Anne Templeton', where I discussed the social psychological factors that impact evacuation behaviour in emergencies and the implications these have for computer evacuation models. The talk sparked debate about how to operationalise social identities into models. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.firescienceshow.com/052-more-realism-in-evacuation-modelling-with-anne-templeton/ |
Description | LinkedIn account - FRCommsStrategies - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/ |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | only recently set up, in progress. It's being used to inform current and new stakeholders and anyone interested in the project about it's progress, news and to increase awareness of the project. will be used for other purposes as project develops further in the future. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
URL | https://www.linkedin.com/feed/ |
Description | Magazine article - Fire & Risk Management Journal |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Dr Anne Templeton and Dr Yunhe Tong discuss recent research into the importance of group processes in emergency evacuations in our latest article published by the Fire & Risk Management Journal. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://osf.io/dhcwx |
Description | Obstacles and avenues to coordination between the emergency services and public |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | a talk about the project to Turkish Psychological Association. Turkey |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Poster at BPS Social Psychology Section 2022 Annual Conference, London, UK - 'Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on citizen adherence' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Templeton, A., (2022, 7 September). Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on citizen adherence [Poster]. BPS Social Psychology Section 2022 Annual Conference, London, UK. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Presentation to the CATA research group in the Université Clermont Auvergne and the Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitiv, |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I presented a talk 'Evacuation behaviour in psychological crowds' to the CATA research group in the Université Clermont Auvergne and the Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitiv. The talk was attended by 19 people and sparked debate about which parts of social identity theory and self-categorisation theory are feasible to investigate in evacuation research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Project Website - Simulating the impact of first resonder communication strategies on citizen adherence in emergencies - https://firstrespondercommunicationstrategies.com/ |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The website is used as information platform for anyone interested in the project, including stakeholders, experiment participants, interviewees, industry researchers, etc. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
URL | https://firstrespondercommunicationstrategies.com/ |
Description | Project team Workshop - Simulating the social identity approach workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Project team Workshop - Simulating the social identity approach workshop Workshop focused on conceptualisation of the social identity parameter: what parts of the theory do we need to include in the model |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on citizen adherence in emergencies (Communities Prepared National Group) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Presentation to the Communities Prepared National Group |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on citizen adherence in emergencies (the Cabinet Office) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Presentation to the Cabinet Office |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Social behaviour and communication in evacuations: A systematic review |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation at a Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics Conference. Eindhoven, Netherlands |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | TED talk presented to EMS2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | I presented a TED talk 'Simulating the impact of first responder communication strategies on citizen adherence in emergencies' to advertise the project. It was attended by over 100 people and led to first responders joining my steering group and gaining participants for my research interviews. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Talk given at the London School of Economics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Templeton, A. (2024, March 6). Trying to understand how and why the public respond to safety guidance in emergencies. Talk given at the London School of Economics |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | Talk given at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Understanding public response to first responder instructions during evacuations. Talk given at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | Talk to an MSc course, Heriot-Watt University |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Knowledge exchange and impact in crowd psychology. Talk to an MSc course, Heriot-Watt University |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | This is what I need you to do': First responders' preferences and boundaries on communicating and coordinating with the public in emergencies |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation at the 19th General Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology. Krakow, Poland |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Twitter project page - https://twitter.com/FRCommsStrategy, @FRCommsStrategy |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This Twitter account is used to inform of latest developments within the project, and to attract further interest and potential participation in stakeholder groups, experiment participation etc. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
URL | https://twitter.com/FRCommsStrategy |
Description | Why do crowds move us? - A Deeply Human Podcast - BBC World Service |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Participated in BBC World Service Deeply Human Series 2 - Crowds Podcast, episode 'Why do crowds move us?' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct3hgy |
Description | Women Talking Fire Conference, Leeds |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A talk - How and why the public responds in emergencies: A behavioural science approach. Women Talking Fire Conference, Leeds |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |