## 3 Research Method and Procedures  
The in-depth literature review provided the theoretical basis for this research in designing the conceptual framework, empirical analysis and development of the model. In this study, questionnaires were distributed in the four interchange platforms of the Harbin metro in order to discuss the relationship between decision-making capability and evacuation behavioural strategies. Harbin's Metro is an important underground rail transit in the city, with four interchange stations and an average daily passenger volume of approximately more than two hundred thousand. The questionnaires were distributed to passengers on site, collected after completion and distributed to passengers in the actual underground stations, and the data collected was statistically analysed. The design of the questionnaire consisted of three parts. Part A solicited general information about the respondents including age, occupation, frequency of underground travel, and education. Part B included a survey of the respondents' survivability, knowledge of emergency response, risk perception, and emotions. This section of the survey allows passengers to make a realistic assessment of the various indicators of decision-making capability and to reflect individual performance in the various aspects of decision-making capability in numerical form. This provides a basis for calculating the impact of the components of decision-making capability on evacuation behaviours. Additionally, Part C included a survey of evacuation behavioural tendencies. This section investigates the behavioural strategy tendencies of passengers before and during the evacuation process. The results of this section reflect the evacuation strategy tendencies of passengers by the magnitude of the score. To capture the above characteristics and behavioural tendencies of individuals except for the emotional part, a 5-point Likert scale was used, with 1 representing strongly disagree, 2 representing disagree, 3 representing neutral/fair, 4 representing agree and 5 representing strongly agree.  
Figure 2: Hypothetical structural model.  
A total of 750 questionnaires were distributed and 680 were returned. As the behavioural tendency survey in this study is not post-disaster research, some respondents were found to have the same tendency towards different behavioural strategies during the research, therefore invalid questionnaires without obvious behavioural strategy tendencies were excluded and a total of 638 valid questionnaires were returned, with a valid return rate of 91.14% that is sufficient for analysis. In this study, to explain the tendency to sparse behavioural strategies, behavioural tendencies can be measured by their corresponding observational variables, which are referred to as measurement items or indicators. Table 2 shows the demographics of the respondents, of which 47.2% were male and 52.8% were female. The respondents were distributed across all age groups, covered all occupations and all travelled the metro with varying frequency each week. As such, they were all qualified respondents and were able to provide reasonable judgements on the propensity for evacuation behavioural strategies.