Who and what is trusted in fire incidents? The role of trust in guidance and guidance creators in resident response to fire incidents in high-rise residential buildings

Abstract

Ensuring that residents of high-rise residential buildings follow fire safety guidance in emergencies is important to facilitate safe response. However, little prior research has explored how willingness to follow fire safety guidance is impacted by trust in the guidance itself and trust in the creators of the guidance. The research presented herein hypothesised that the relationship between perceived clarity of the guidance and self-reported willingness to follow the guidance in an emergency would be mediated by both trust in the guidance and trust in the creators of the guidance. An online survey (N = 769) with residents of UK high-rise residential buildings was conducted to examine the relationship between participants’ perceived clarity of their building’s fire safety guidance (both to stay put and evacuate) and their self-reported willingness to follow it. Specifically, we explored how this relationship was impacted by trust in the guidance itself and the providers of the guidance. Parallel mediation analyses showed that the relationship between the perceived clarity of the guidance to and willingness to follow it operated through trust in the guidance and trust in the creators of the guidance. The results replicate previous research on group processes in emergencies but highlight the importance of addressing how views of guidance, its creators, building safety as well as physical constraints may influence emergency response.