The impact of risk preference on decision-making during evacuation: Behavioral and physiological analysis using event-related potential signals

Abstract

Individuals with different cognitive and personality traits may be required to serve as evacuees during a fire or other emergencies. We investigated how the personality trait of risk preference influences the decision-making strategy of fire evacuees, and classified evacuees by different risk preferences to reveal behavioral and neurophysiological differences associated with different preference categories. Event-related potentials and reaction times were recorded as 49 healthy participants performed an emergency decision-making task that required them to choose between two escape routes by considering route distance and fire severity. Our simulated evacuation experiment revealed the participants’ risk-taking preferences during emergency evacuation. All participants were classified into three statistically different groups (risk-averse group; risk-neutral group; risk-seeking group). We found that evacuees determined their risk preference early and preferred to maintain their original decision-making strategy rather than change it frequently. Our findings indicate that, when participants selected an option against their risk preference, they demonstrated longer reaction time and used more cognitive and attentional resources. This difference is shown by the significant difference in reaction times, P300 amplitudes, and activity on topographic scalp maps. Our study is the first to identify physiological changes that correspond with different risk preferences during evacuation decision-making and explain more fully how evacuees make emergency decisions in the context of fire. Future research should examine these findings in a larger sample size.