Modeling cooperative and competitive behaviors in emergency evacuation: A game-theoretical approach

A game-theoretical model to study evacuees' cooperative and competitive behaviors during an emergency evacuation is proposed. The model integrated with evacuation dynamics model determines the density of cooperative and competitive evacuees and their related evacuation times. Computer simulation results show that (1) as urgency of evacuation increases, cooperation among evacuees' decreases; (2) in an emergency situation, individual hyper-rationality among evacuees diminishes evacuation efficiency; (3) the imitation effect enhances cooperation among evacuees, yet reduces evacuation efficiency. This study provides a methodological pattern to research crowd behaviors in emergency evacuation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.