The influence of misleading agents spreading misinformation on evacuee behaviour during emergency evacuations. A theoretical study

This study investigates the effect of misinformation on evacuee behaviour and evacuation outcome using an agent-based modelling approach. Through simulating emergency scenarios with varying proportions of misleading agents and different levels of gullibility of evacuating agents, we analyse the effect of misinformation on evacuation time, decision-making, and success rates. The model shows that even a small minority of misleading agents can significantly disrupt the behaviour of the majority, leading to poorer collective outcomes. The findings suggest the presence of threshold conditions under which disruption becomes more pronounced, highlighting a potential sensitivity of evacuation dynamics to misinformation within the simulated environment. Within the scope of this stylised model, the results provide qualitative insights into the interaction between misinformation processes and evacuation dynamics. The study focuses on isolating and examining underlying behavioural mechanisms in a controlled setting. The framework integrates concepts from misinformation propagation and evacuation modelling, and provides a basis for future work extending the analysis to more complex and realistic spatial environments.