Laypeople in Fire Protection: Their Motivation, Their Emotions, Their Value

This online supplement contains a dataset (raw data) collected in a study by the University of Münster, Germany, as well as supplementary study materials, and the online appendix of our paper including additional results. The study is part of a larger research project (https://www.brawa.ovgu.de/en/) and examined the motivation, emotions, and behavior of laypeople in fire protection. Fire events, a specific type of emergency situation, occur regularly and often cost people's lives. Early fire detection and involvement of (trained) laypeople in very early stages is essential, especially in fire-prone historical buildings. In an interview study (N = 25) and a quantification study (N = 238), we examined laypeople's motivation to help, their emotions, and their value – especially regarding behaviors – during fires. In Study 1, based on in-depth interviews using the critical incident technique, we inductively developed three category systems: 1) Key motivators included one's emotional bond to the object, altruism, self-protection, and self-efficacy. 2) Laypeople's emotions, such as stress at first but also calmness, were categorized. 3) We also found that laypeople's primary value during fire incidents was their ability to provide support, e.g., knowledge of the building. In Study 2, we found quantitative support for the findings derived from Study 1. Additionally, we compared laypeople's and experts' assessments and compared reactions depending on fire size. Thus, our research shifts the focus from evacuation to active – and safe – involvement of laypeople. Our results are helpful for executives in emergency management, as they may find value in including laypeople when coping with emergencies. The ethics committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science of the University of Münster approved the studies (under ID 2021-30-MT and ID 2021-14-MT) and we preregistered them with aspredicted.org (available at https://aspredicted.org/dd2p8.pdf and https://aspredicted.org/m6zh5.pdf). The studies were supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant number 13N15416). This online supplement includes: An online supplement (online appendix) containing additional material and results for Study 1 and Study 2 One codebook describing all instructions and items in Study 2 (quantification study) Raw (anonymized) data set and analysis script for Study 2 (Note: The raw data contains only the information of persons who were included in the analysis and who gave their informed consent. Some demographic information was deleted to ensure anonymity.)