  In this paper, we present a computational modeling approach for the dynamics
of human crowds, where the spreading of an emotion (specifically fear) has an
influence on the pedestrians' behavior. Our approach is based on the methods of
the kinetic theory of active particles. The model allows us to weight between
two competing behaviors depending on fear level: the search for less congested
areas and the tendency to follow the stream unconsciously (herding). The fear
level of each pedestrian influences her walking speed and is influenced by the
fear levels of her neighbors. Numerically, we solve our pedestrian model with
emotional contagion using an operator splitting scheme. We simulate evacuation
scenarios involving two groups of interacting pedestrians to assess how domain
geometry and the details of fear propagation impact evacuation dynamics.
Further, we reproduce the evacuation dynamics of an experimental study
involving distressed ants.
