Influence of different safety alarm systems on emergency evacuation behavior: a cross-cultural immersive virtual reality-based study

Effective emergency communication is critical for indoor safety, yet uniform alarm systems often neglect cultural variations in risk experience and compliance. Given that delayed responses frequently lead to evacuation failures, a thorough understanding of cross‑cultural behavioral differences is essential for enhancing real‑world safety outcomes. To address this gap, this study conducted a fire evacuation experiment in an immersive virtual reality (VR) airport arrival hall, where participants tested a novel wearable device (smart glasses) capable of delivering multimodal alarm information—including auditory, visual, and olfactory signals. The experimental design incorporated three key dimensions: pre‑evacuation activities, social influence, and three variants of multimodal alarm systems (Modes A, B, and C). Adopting a between‑subjects design, the experiment was carried out in two distinct cultural contexts—China and Portugal—with a total of 171 volunteers. Data were collected on evacuation time, route selection, visual attention to non‑player characters and exit signs, evacuation choices, and subjective user experience. Results show that cultural differences significantly affect evacuation behaviour in VR environments. Multimodal alarms combining auditory, visual, and olfactory cues proved more effective in enhancing compliance, particularly in collectivist cultures such as China, where sensory‑rich environments tend to be more engaging. Moreover, notable disparities emerged between Portuguese and Chinese participants in evacuation efficiency and in the classification of “decided” versus “undecided” behaviours, providing evidence of culturally divergent responses to multimodal alarm systems. These findings offer actionable insights for designing culturally adaptive alarm systems and underscore the potential of multimodal approaches to improve both compliance and evacuation efficiency.