Citation

Kinsey MJ, Kinateder M, Gwynne SMV, Hopkin D. Fire Mater. 2021; 45(4): 543-552.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/fam.2824

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Fire engineering has developed into a mainstream engineering discipline within the building design process. Building fire codes are increasingly complex, comprising thousands of requirements regarding a wide range of topics that must be considered. Fire engineers are required to possess increasingly complex knowledge about a variety of subjects, along with expertise in their application. This has been magnified with the proliferation of performance-based methods using a range of computational tools. This coupled with increased project performance pressures, raises the potential for errors in judgment. Errors in judgment may be caused by limitations in a given resource (e.g. time, information available, knowledge, etc) and/or neglect/over-focus on specific information (at the expense of other and more relevant information) through cognitive biases. This paper initially provides a broad overview of general decision-making, including the use of heuristics and cognitive biases. Examples of cognitive biases are presented which may be linked to errors in fire engineer decision-making. This study considers several fire engineering decision contexts where cognitive biases may exist which are associated with fire code application, modeling/calculations, probabilistic risk assessments, general fire engineering practice, and perceptions based on experience. Potential measures to mitigate some of these biases and prompt better decision-making are discussed. Those that may benefit from awareness of such biases and mitigation measures include not only practicing fire engineers, but also building developers, fire code committees, evacuation/fire/structural fire modeling developers, approving authorities, and fire engineering researchers/students.

Language: en

Keywords

cognitive biases; decision making; fire engineering