Strategies in crowd and crowd structure

TL;DR

This paper investigates how imitation of neighbor strategies in crowds during emergencies can cause a phase transition, leading to spatial clustering of pedestrians with similar behaviors, analyzed through simulations of the Social Force Model.

Contribution

It introduces a model of crowd behavior with two strategies and demonstrates how imitation induces an order-disorder phase transition in pedestrian arrangements.

Findings

Ordered phase correlates with increased spatial clustering.

Imitation of strategies influences crowd dynamics.

Simulation results support phase transition hypothesis.

Abstract

In an emergency situation, imitation of strategies of neighbours can lead to an order-disorder phase transition, where spatial clusters of pedestrians adopt the same strategy. We assume that there are two strategies, cooperating and competitive, which correspond to a smaller or larger desired velocity. The results of our simulations within the Social Force Model indicate that the ordered phase can be detected as an increase of spatial order of positions of the pedestrians in the crowd.