Irrational human decision making during a zombie apocalypse

You're in a room full of lumbering zombies and you want to get out quick. Here's a tip: the stress of the situation will make you favour the exit that you're most familiar with even if that's the busiest way out. Give yourself a better chance by checking that there isn't a quieter way to escape the flesh-munchers. This is the lesson from a study conducted by researchers at the ZombieLab event held at London's Science Museum earlier this year. Nikolai Bode and Edward Codling presented 185 participants (90 women; average age 25) with a computer simulation showing a top-down view of a corridor and a zombie-filled room with two available doorways on opposite sides. Each participant was represented in the simulation as a black-filled circle which they controlled with a computer mouse. To start they were directed to follow arrows from their initial position in the corridor into the room. For the second phase, their task was to exit the room as fast as possible back to the corridor. During this evacuation phase, the zombies in the room were also attempting to get back out into the corridor. In a baseline condition, the participants showed no preference for either of the exits. However, when stress levels were ratcheted up with a prominent challenge to beat the current fastest time, the participants' decision making was affected. Under stress, participants were more likely than in the baseline condition to try to exit via the route they used to enter the room, even though this was...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Source Type: blogs