Divergent and Convergent Thinking in Emergency Response Organizations

This laboratory experiment shows how time constraint and event severity affect convergent and divergent thinking processes among professional emergency response personnel addressing a simulated emergency situation. Increasing time constraint resulted in fewer options considered, fewer recommendations made, fewer decisions taken, and less favorable decision outcomes. Increasing event severity had a more ambiguous effect, suggesting the need for further study on the effect of this factor alone and in conjunction with time constraint.