The Impact of Social Influence and Threat Uncertainty on Behavior in a School Shooting Simulation

As the frequency of school shooting incidents grows in the United States, understanding student behavior in response to shootings is crucial for policy development. A total of 545 participants from Prolific.com participated in an immersive virtual experience on a computer screen of a school shooting simulation using a 3x3 factorial design varying social influence (all run, all hide, or mixed) from non-player characters (NPCs) and threat uncertainty (high, medium, low) from proximity to where shooting begins. Results showed that participants were more likely to hide as more NPCs hid in high and medium threat uncertainty conditions. However, when threat uncertainty was low, participants were most likely to hide in the mixed social influence condition. Similarly, participants were more likely to evacuate as more NPCs ran away in the high and medium threat uncertainty conditions. However, this effect was not significant when the threat uncertainty was low. Participants reported a significant increase in negative affect after completing the simulation; approximately 40% reported that NPCs influenced their behavior, and 25% reported that they had received active shooter training before. Our findings suggest that individuals in a school shooting are likely to follow the social influence of others, whether they realize it or not. Furthermore, this effect is strongest when the uncertainty of the threat is high. These insights can help policymakers construct more effective guidelines for how individuals should respond to school shooting scenarios and reduce casualties.