Critical Incident Decision-Making Group

The Critical Incident Decision-Making Group conducts cutting-edge research into decision-making and teamwork in high-stakes, high-pressure environments.

Drawing from diverse disciplines - including social, organisational, cognitive, forensic, and applied psychology - our work focuses on understanding and improving human performance in extreme and uncertain contexts, such as policing, defence, emergencies and high-reliability organisations. 

Our key research areas include: 

• Decision-making and Decision Inertia: Exploring the psychological factors underpinning decision-making in critical incidents and decision inertia, developing microlearning interventions to mitigate these effects
• Teamwork and Interoperability: Investigating how multi-agency teams collaborate and share information in risky environments, such as emergency response, offender management, and child exploitation cases
• Mass Casualty Triage: Examining individual differences in triage performance and leveraging AI systems to enhance decision-making in crisis scenarios
• Psychological Safety and Moral Injury: Understanding the intersection between critical incident decision-making under pressure and mental health
• High-Value Detainee Interrogations: Evaluating rapport-based interrogation techniques, including the ORBIT model, to effectively engage detainees
• Self-Initiated Terrorism: Developing methods to identify and mitigate risks related to extremist behaviour
• Emergency Preparedness and Training: Designing and evaluating training programs to enhance learning for emergency responders, and enhancing public engagement in emergency preparedness (e.g., prevention initiatives such as Home Fire Safety Visits). 

Our group collaborates with national and international organisations, including law enforcement, defence, emergency services, and public health agencies, to evaluate what works, in which contexts, and why. Our work been supported by a range of funding agencies, including the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Home Office, Dstl and Ministry of Defence. By bridging research and practice, we aim to enhance decision-making, teamwork, and public safety across a range of critical incident scenarios.