I often wonder how in the world exits can be blocked, or have hardware that has been modified and will not allow egress – sometimes for YEARS – without anyone noticing. I think the answer may have something to do with today’s Quick Question:
What is “learned irrelevance” and how does it affect doors in a means of egress?
When writing about egress, I have mentioned before that building occupants often try to exit the same way they entered a building. Under normal circumstances, this isn’t typically a problem, but in an emergency it can be crucial to know where the closest exit is located – and use it. However, during past fires and other events where emergency evacuation was needed, we have sometimes seen building occupants pass available exits and head for the entrance. If the normal route is blocked, the results of this familiar pattern can be fatal. Some exits may even have signage or alarmed/delayed egress hardware that discourages the use of the egress door.
According to the book Egress Design Solutions: A Guide to Evacuation and Crowd Management Planning By Jeffrey Tubbs and Brian Meacham, learned irrelevance is the inability to effectively respond to previously irrelevant information. This can cause building occupants to ignore safety features that they see every day but rarely use – like emergency exits. When coupled with the behavior of moving toward the familiar, this can lead people to exit a building the same way they entered. A 2001 study demonstrated learned irrelevance with regard to emergency exit signage, and the idea of dynamic exit signage was discussed in an episode of NFPA Learn Something New.
The International Fire Code (IFC) Commentary also references the term “learned irrelevance”:
The management of occupants is primarily moving them away from the hazard. Verifying that enough exits have ample capacity, are immediately accessible, adequately arranged, appropriately identified and suitably protected are only the first steps toward achieving functional life safety. Occupants must know not only where exits are, but also when and how to use them. For instance, studies have shown that people have a “learned irrelevance” to emergency exits. Learned irrelevance is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when a person is exposed to a stimulus but usually does not need to respond to it. Because of this phenomenon, most occupants are likely to exit the way they have entered, whether it is the correct way or not; therefore, beyond designing the building with an adequate number of exits, a method of encouraging the use of the best exits must be developed. Identifying dangerous conditions, deciding how to act and responding appropriately and promptly are essential.
The possibility that building occupants will experience learned irrelevance regarding egress doors makes it even more important that we all make a conscious effort to locate the nearest exit whenever we are in a building, and ensure that the exit is available for egress. It also underscores the importance of fire/evacuation drills to acquaint building occupants with the concept of using the nearest exit.
What do you think? Are there other ways to overcome learned irrelevance and help to ensure that building occupants will take the safest route during an emergency?
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Maybe as part of fire drills for kids in elementary school, also teach them what exit signs are, what they are for, and how to look for them in other buildings. Hopefully over time it would become as ingrained in our society as the sound of a fire alarm or “stop, drop, and roll”…..hey, maybe it needs a catchy saying!
Based on how ingrained “stop, drop, and roll” is for me, I expected that catching myself on fire would be a much more common problem in my lifetime!
– Lori
Excellently put – “learned irrelevance is the inability to effectively respond to previously irrelevant information”. This is so true. We see doors marked ‘emergency exit’ and it is embedded in our psyche that they are not to be used, and in actual emergency this thought is not reversed. The solution is to unlearn this irrelevance by making entrances not available for exits and implementing regular fire/evacuation drill to habituate occupants with the normally dormant additional emergency exits.
“Because of this phenomenon, most occupants are likely to exit the way they have entered, whether it is the correct way or not; therefore, beyond designing the building with an adequate number of exits, a method of encouraging the use of the best exits must be developed.”
I have to respectfully disagree with the IFC as they have articulated a poor grasp of learned irrelevance and have failed to acknowledge research that demonstrates learned irrelevance can be prevented. In all fairness to the IFC, they are far from alone in this regard. However, the ability to prevent learned irrelevance opens up possibilities, many of which could lead to meaningful improvements in the human element variable in life safety and fire safety. But a discussion on such prevention is best saved for another time.
If we want to attribute learned irrelevance to certain human action or lack of action during a variety of building emergencies that led to injuries or loss of life we should probably more closely examine building and fire codes and the historic role such codes have played in fostering the actual development of learned irrelevance in the first place. Further, as the term learned irrelevance has been in the lexicon for well over forty years it is also fair to question why has there not been any attempt to revise or update the code in all these years to specifically address this very phenomenon?
For decades buildings have been designed and plans have been reviewed and approved that demonstrate “paper compliance” with building and fire codes yet building occupants more often than not are completely unfamiliar and unaware even of the very fire and life safety elements that have been provided for their safety including their designed function as well as how these features were intended to function and be used by occupants during a building emergency. One of the best examples is the horizontal exit, thought the entire list is far too long for this discussion.
Another is the ubiquitous EXIT sign. How does an unfamiliar occupant distinguish a sign that is leading them to safety from a sign that is leading them straight into the fire? The IFC stated: “… a method of encouraging the use of the best exits must be developed.” Perhaps the IFC could elaborate on what “encouraging” and “best” should mean to an occupant facing the immediacy of making a life or death decision based upon the limited information the codes have provided for them to choose from in a life defining moment?
Even in highly regulated environments like health care where staff training and periodic drills are routinely provided the level of staff understanding of building fire safety features has historically been extremely low despite staff education, experience, and building familiarity being significantly higher than literally any other occupancy classification. Compare that level of occupant building knowledge with the growing number of bigger and taller buildings (high rise buildings, entertainment and sporting venues, etc.) frequently occupied by primarily first time or transient guests and staff with little or no knowledge of the facility or training in the building fire and life safety features and the potential for a disaster during a building emergency escalates exponentially.
Building life safety systems have an untapped potential to provide occupants with never before seen levels of safety during a variety of potential building emergencies. Critical to providing occupants with an increased level of safety will be the ability of those systems to: correctly identify the type of threat/hazard; correctly identify the location of the threat/hazard; effectively communicate with building occupants to direct occupants both away from danger as well as help prevent occupants from unknowing enter unsafe floors/areas, and deploying/activating other fire or life safety systems to contain/mitigate the threat/hazard.
As technology continues to advance along with an ever increasing level of knowledge of how to best leverage such technology in the field of life safety will hopefully lead us to when learned irrelevance will be a far less significant potential point of failure.
Had this happen to me at a local retail store. Had Mops and buckets in from of Emg Exit. I made Manager aware. He did not care. I them told him I was calling local fire marshall. He then responded. I followed up 2 mos later and exit was clear.