Design Research for Rational Decision Making and Behavior Change in Emergency Situations

Background Recently, large and small emergencies are constantly occurring around the world. In particular, the risk and importance of emergency situations at an individual level are increasing due to the increase in chronic diseases from an aging population, excessive stress due to overwork, and overcrowding of urban populations. Existing individual emergency research lacks consideration of psychological factors and has limitations in that empirical research has not been sufficiently conducted. Based on empirical research, this study proposes a behavioral change induction design that considers the decision-making process and psychological factors from the perspective of the victim's surroundings, considering the characteristics of individual emergencies. Methods Through previous studies, we examined the disaster situation (emergency) and decision-making process that are the background of this study, and analyzed the reasonable decision-making obstacles that occurred in this process. Then, after selecting a behavioral change induction model to overcome the derived cause, an intervention design using the model was proposed. Experiments were conducted by group using the proposed design and quantitative and qualitative result analysis were verified for design effectiveness. Results In the event of an emergency, it was confirmed that factors that interfere with rational decision-making and behavioral changes due to negative psychological factors occurred in the victim's neighbors. The two designs proposed in this study (design to overcome cognitive bias and design to transfer expertise information) were effectively applied in the situation to induce behavioral changes. Conclusions Considering the characteristics of emergency situations, the study is significant in that it presents a design guide that can induce rational decision-making and behavioral changes from the perspective of the victim's surroundings. It is expected that emergency situations that may occur in daily life can be efficiently overcome through the use and application of the design proposed as a result of the study.