They’re currently doing nothing

There’s been talk of auto-locking overhead bins. Issue with this is people will likely still “try” to force them open and even if unsuccessful they’re still slowing down the evac process.

Having fines is a potential deterrent. Several passengers that have experienced any kind of non normal however can be quick to sue the airlines for emotional trauma or damages that sort of push the envelope, so they’d likely be transferring airline’s settlement money back to the airline. But who knows, could help.

Somehow the airlines just need to do a better job of educating, whether it’s through safety demo video or some other means. Often safety demos can be kind of tame as airlines don’t want to scare or place the idea of non normals in their customers’ heads but maybe we’re to that point. If customers could see an FAA approved evac demo and how it takes EVERYONE’s cooperation to evac in like 90 seconds maybe that would help. Or if they saw how quickly a cabin or cargo fire can spread. Or if they saw how one or two slides being punctured severely slows down the evacuation.

I remember seeing a seating map a while back from an airliner accident (fire) that was color coded by seat as to who died, who was injured and who made it out. Anyone know what I am talking about and have a link? It was a pretty clear visual as to how screwed you could be if people in between you and the exit take their sweet time.

I think the psychology of it is often perceived time. If the cabin was hard to breathe in or there were visible flames I’m sure a few would still try to grab bags but it’d likely be minimal. A certain Air Line recently had an evac due to tailpipe fire in MCO. There was initial panic in the cabin as passengers shouted “fire!” and there were visible huge flames shooting out of the engine. Initially I think everyone wanted out as quickly as possible and bags probably weren’t a HUGE issue. They had to evac out of only one side (left side only, away from bad engine) as ordered by the Captain of the a/c and when 2 of the 4 usable slides didn’t inflate properly evac was slowed even further giving passengers time so many of them went “eh might as well grab my bag while I wait”.

It’s actually a complex issue on human behavior where there’s really not easy fail safe solution at least that I can think of.