  Followership is generally defined as a strategy that evolved to solve social
coordination problems, and particularly those involved in group movement.
Followership behaviour is particularly interesting in the context of
road-crossing behaviour because it involves other principles such as
risk-taking and evaluating the value of social information. This study sought
to identify the cognitive mechanisms underlying decision-making by pedestrians
who follow another person across the road at the green or at the red light in
two different countries (France and Japan). We used agent-based modelling to
simulate the road-crossing behaviours of pedestrians. This study showed that
modelling is a reliable means to test different hypotheses and find the exact
processes underlying decision-making when crossing the road. We found that two
processes suffice to simulate pedestrian behaviours. Importantly, the study
revealed differences between the two nationalities and between sexes in the
decision to follow and cross at the green and at the red light. Japanese
pedestrians are particularly attentive to the number of already departed
pedestrians and the number of waiting pedestrians at the red light, whilst
their French counterparts only consider the number of pedestrians that have
already stepped off the kerb, thus showing the strong conformism of Japanese
people. Finally, the simulations are revealed to be similar to observations,
not only for the departure latencies but also for the number of crossing
pedestrians and the rates of illegal crossings. The conclusion suggests new
solutions for safety in transportation research.
