Data from: Information use by humans during dynamic route choice in virtual crowd evacuations

We conducted a computer-based experiment with over 450 human participants
and used a Bayesian model selection approach to explore dynamic exit route
choice mechanisms of individuals in simulated crowd evacuations. In
contrast to previous work, we explicitly explore the use of time-dependent
and time-independent information in decision-making. Our findings suggest
that participants tended to base their exit choices on time-dependent
information, such as differences in queue lengths and queue speeds at
exits rather than on time-independent information, such as differences in
exit widths or exit route length. We found weak support for similar
decision-making mechanisms under a stress-inducing experimental treatment.
However, under this treatment participants were less able or willing to
adjust their original exit choice in the course of the evacuation. Our
experiment is not a direct test of behaviour in real evacuations, but it
does highlight the role different types of information and stress play in
real human decision-making in a virtual environment. Our findings may be
useful in identifying topics for future study on real human crowd
movements or for developing more realistic agent-based simulations.