Asymmetric Threat Manipulation and Counterbalanced Leadership Cues: Effects on Decision Making, Evacuation, and Visual Attention in Virtual Emergency Scenarios

This study employed an immersive virtual reality system to investigate how smoke exposure, leadership signals, and the congruence or incongruence of hazard-leadership cues shape evacuation behavior and patterns of visual attention. Participants interacted with two virtual humans: a familiar guide (VHX) and an unfamiliar newcomer (VHY). At a critical intersection, they decided whether to follow one of them or avoid smoke at a key intersection. Smoke presence was manipulated to align with the guide's path, the newcomer's path, or be absent, creating congruent and incongruent threat-leadership conditions. Visual attention (fixation time) and decision area duration were measured at the key intersection. Participants were grouped by their overall tendency to follow others or to avoid smoke, allowing subgroup analyses of evacuation behavior. Results revealed that smoke presence redirected visual attention toward social cues, reducing attention to environmental hazards. Smoke avoidance was jointly shaped by leadership cues and prior smoke exposure within the simulation, highlighting the dynamic interplay between social influence and threat perception. Reliance on the guide varied systematically by observed following tendency and participant gender. These findings suggest that emergency training should integrate both social and environmental cues, account for individual differences in following behavior, and use VR simulations to expose participants to conflicting leadership and hazard signals, offering insights for the design of effective emergency training and simulation systems.