Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 18, 2025
06:48
The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
Published on: January 19, 2019
9.7K
Collective communication and behaviour in response to uncertain 'Danger' in network experiments
Hirokazu Shirado1, Forrest W Crawford2,3, Nicholas A Christakis2,4
1School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Proceedings. Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences
|June 11, 2020
Summary
Social networks hinder emergency evacuations by spreading false reassurance, despite reducing unnecessary evacuations. Individual response to social information depends on signal negativity, not accuracy, highlighting how networks ignore inconvenient truths.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Network Science
- Emergency Response
Background:
- Social coordination during emergencies is complex.
- Interpersonal connections can influence responses to uncertain dangers.
- Understanding group behavior in unpredictable situations is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how communication networks affect group evacuation decisions in simulated emergencies.
- To analyze the impact of communication type, group topology, and size on evacuation behavior.
- To determine individual response thresholds to social information.
Main Methods:
- Conducted experiments with 2480 subjects in 108 groups simulating an unpredictable emergency scenario.
- Manipulated interpersonal communication types, group topology, and group size.
- Collected data on information communication and evacuation decisions.
Main Results:
- Communication networks suppressed necessary evacuations due to false reassurance.
- Networks also restrained unnecessary evacuations in non-disaster scenarios.
- Individual response thresholds were sensitive to the negativity, not accuracy, of social signals.
Conclusions:
- Social networks can impede effective emergency response by facilitating the spread of misinformation.
- People are more influenced by the perceived negativity of information than its factual accuracy.
- Social networks may fail to transmit critical, albeit inconvenient, truths.
Keywords:
collective intelligencecommunication networkinformation diffusionsocial coordination under uncertaintysocial experimentsMore Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
03:20The Stanford Prison Experiment
24.3K
The famous and controversial Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by social psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues at Stanford University, demonstrated the power of social roles, social norms, and scripts.
24.3K
01:10Propagation of Uncertainty from Systematic Error
1.2K
The atomic mass of an element varies due to the relative ratio of its isotopes. A sample's relative proportion of oxygen isotopes influences its average atomic mass. For instance, if we were to measure the atomic mass of oxygen from a sample, the mass would be a weighted average of the isotopic masses of oxygen in that sample. Since a single sample is not likely to perfectly reflect the true atomic mass of oxygen for all the molecules of oxygen on Earth, the mass we obtain from this...
1.2K
01:20Conformity
47.6K
Conformity is the change in a person’s behavior to go along with the group, even if that person does not agree with the group.
47.6K
00:59Propagation of Uncertainty from Random Error
1.6K
An experiment often consists of more than a single step. In this case, measurements at each step give rise to uncertainty. Because the measurements occur in successive steps, the uncertainty in one step necessarily contributes to that in the subsequent step. As we perform statistical analysis on these types of experiments, we must learn to account for the propagation of uncertainty from one step to the next. The propagation of uncertainty depends on the type of arithmetic operation performed on...
1.6K
02:09Bystander Effect
10.1K
The discussion of bullying highlights the problem of witnesses not intervening to help a victim. This is a common occurrence, as the following well-publicized event demonstrates. In 1964, in Queens, New York, a 19-year-old woman named Kitty Genovese was attacked by a person with a knife near the back entrance to her apartment building and again in the hallway inside her apartment building. When the attack occurred, she screamed for help numerous times and eventually died from her stab wounds.
10.1K
00:59Uncertainty: Overview
1.4K
In analytical chemistry, we often perform repetitive measurements to detect and minimize inaccuracies caused by both determinate and indeterminate errors. Despite the cares we take, the presence of random errors means that repeated measurements almost never have exactly the same magnitude. The collective difference between these measurements - observed values - and the estimated or expected value is called uncertainty. Uncertainty is conventionally written after the estimated or expected value.
1.4K