ABSTRACT
Mathematical models for the simulation of crowd behavior have been investigated as quantitative tools for demonstrating evacuation performance in the case of an emergency (Gwynne et al. 2009; Helbing et al. 2002; Sagun et al. 2011; Schadschneider et al. 2009). Different factors can influence an emergency situation—the main factors are the building, the environment, and human factors, and all of these should be taken into account in an evacuation simulation. Despite existing regulations, incidents have shown that taken measures might not be sufficient in the case of fire, and as discovered by Kobes et al. (2010), human factors play a major role in the outcome of evacuations and research shows growing interest in human factors and psychology (Hofinger et al. 2014). Therefore, the design and organization of evacuation systems can be seen as crucial factors to gain a positive outcome of such critical events. Within conflict situations, people’s behavior deviates from the expected behavior, for example, neglecting to leave the danger zone as soon as possible. Lewin (1935) defines conflict as “a situation in which oppositely directed, simultaneously acting forces of approximately equal strength work upon the individual” (p. 122). Conflict situations within evacuation situations are, for example, other individuals who are still in the danger situation, personal belongings and valuables, and so forth.
