To panic or not to panic

The first thing one should know about emergency evacuation situations is not to panic, and not to run. We have always been taught to locate the nearest emergency exit, and walk calmly to it.

But when one looks at the signs of the emergency exits, very few of them actually send that message.

At first glance, these four different signs all send the same message: the recognizable green color of the sign, the figure, the door and the arrow, all give directions to the closest exit.

But when you look closely at the elements that compose these signs (the distance between the man and the door, the inclination of his body, the presence or not of fire..etc), you can find four degrees of panic ! ( increasing from 1 to 4) (click on the image to view it in a bigger format).

The first sign conforms to the recommendations of walking to the door. The man is calmly going towards the exit while in the the second sign, he is beginning to run. In the third one, he is further from the door, is running real fast, and is already burning in flames! And finally, in the last one, the door isn't even portrayed, he is two steps away from falling down (notice both his legs off the floor, and the difference of angles of inclination between 1 and 4 !) and he is already burning in red flames !