You would think so. However, you have to put yourself in the place of the pax. When JetBlue left us on the plane for nine hours last year, we were being told every so often that we would be returning to the gate within 30-60 minutes. These pax were probably hearing the same lies and didn't want to do anything that might delay the return to the gate or the eventual departure.

I know it doesn't sound logical, certainly in hindsight. We didn't think we had any reason to doubt what we were being told, though JetBlue's operations center had probably cancelled our flight about 5 hours before we actually returned to the gate. Had we known that when our pilot announced we were returning to the gate, or had we known that it would be another 5 hours before we actually made it back to the gate, I am pretty sure that someone would have opened an exit door. I know that if I ever made the mistake of flying JetBlue again, I would doubt the veracity of any announcement from a GA, FA, or pilot.