The psychology of crowds and crowds in confined spaces is worth a study. Even with a briefing surprisingly few passengers will look around for the nearest exit, as do few rock fans in an arena, so there is a need for some information being fed to the passengers.
At the risk of taking the thread off at a tangent, why is this? Is it just a psychological "I came in that door, so that is the only door I can leave through?" issue if exposed to the stress in an evac situation?
I'd expect that the first-time fliers would respond to the request to "look for your nearest exit which may be behind you" as it was a new and unknown situation and they are paying attention. At the other extreme, I'd expect that the regular fliers would have a quick glance as they know the drill and would want to have an idea where said exit was.
I appreciate that I'm not normal in these regards (some friends might say in any regards
) as although I'm not a particularly frequent flier compared to some here, I ensure that I keep in my pockets the essential stuff I'd like to go down the slide with.
(The original thread moved whilst I was typing this - and I appreciate the comments re: the original question - but there is potentially an interesting human factors discussion here. Maybe... Perhaps...)
Paul.