Good Article On Human Psychology In Emergency Situations

[GT]

Great article and comments.

Pre-visualization is very important. On the other hand the folks on THR are a self-selected group of serial pre-visualizers.

It has been my contention that most people live with their heads in their butts. It takes something really dramatic to remove their head and sometimes the removal process just takes too long.

Those that survive then go to shrinks, "grief counsellors" and group therapy to have their heads gently reinserted.

That is why the post-911 mindset has changed back from fight or flight to complacency - heads have been reinserted.

One other thing I have noticed is that those with HIB have a great animosity towards those who are prepared. That is, until disaster strikes.
This explains some of the irrational (ie: non-institutionalized) hatred for firearms.

I name it HIB Syndromeâ„¢

G

 

[rwc]

I think it comes down to a certain level of awareness of your environment. Some people pay attention, I mean really pay attention, to what is happening around them. Most do not.

The psychology of fear and its physiological effects are pretty amazing.

In technical rock climbing there is an experience called "sewing machine leg" or "pulling an Elvis." It is when someone gets to a point where they need to make a very commiting move and they are frozen by fear. First they stop moving, then one or both legs starts to twitch... hence the nicknames. At some point everyone faces it and moves past it. Or the lactic acid builds up to the point where they can't hold themselves in place and they fall. Even very experienced people can have it happen to them when they let fear in. Thinking back to when it has happened to me I can vividly remember feeling absolutely frozen in place. Then, when I figured out what I had to do, it was almost effortless.

In my experience under stress focusing on the task at hand, some small increment of it, is a great way to not think too much and let the fear in.

Similarly, if you are always maintaining a level of awareness then you are less "shocked" when something happens and more able to respond. And as someone said above, keep moving. Whilie freezing in place may have value sometimes, I fall in the "get out of the way and rubberneck later" camp.

 

[Matt-man]

Those of you who found this article interesting may also want to check out Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales. It's a fascinating look at how people's minds (mal)function in situations of extreme stress.

 

[NMshooter]

I agree completely with that article.

They don't mention the sinking feeling you get when you are in a bad situation and realise you are surrounded by folks incapable of acting decisively.

Then the ones who are used to command start shouting orders and the rest start to unfreeze, but you see how the element of suprise works.

A big reason why basic training has so much shouting in it...

 

[Joejojoba111]

walking arsenal

One holiday evening my family is going to go for a holiday meal a a fancy Chinese restaurant. But being too many of us things misfire and we don't all get together and someone feels sick, so we just order in.

Next day we read about how everyone in the restaurant was held captive when gang members with knives and baseball bats bust into the place, and I mean everyone is searched and robbed, along with what the resraurant had.

Stuff really does happen, and the fact is that a lot of people will just over-react. In hingsight it seems that just being docile would have saved one's life, but I was taught differently. I was told emphaticly that you don't let other people play with your life like that, a 5 in 10 chance of getting hurt fighting is better than a 1 in 10 chance of getting hurt standing still, it doesn't make sense, but it just is, imo. And the more opponents the more agression required on your part, it would probably look really bad on a police statement if someone described what you did. Tried by 12, carried by 6.

 

[walking arsenal]

So, whats your point joe.

 

[fastbolt]

I enjoyed the article, and enjoyed many of the more experienced responses, as well.

I also agree with the Deep Survival recommendation.

I like the term 'analysis paralysis', too.

Realistic, well-considered, fundamental training can help condition and prepare folks for a variety of potentially life-threatening situations and circumstances. It's very difficult for training scenarios to duplicate the emotional & physiological responses to an actual event, though, and create the life & death mentality and stress under which multi-tasking that may be necessary for survival. Successfully surviving such situations, as well as 'lesser' situations, can hopefully help prepare folks for a worse crisis ... or another crisis situation ... and hopefully help install or reinforce beneficial thinking patterns, responses and training.

Facing armed suspects, and being shot at, can certainly teach you a lot about yourself that you may not have expected ... or perhaps even desired to know. You can never know ... until you do. And even then, you may wonder about the next time, and whether it'll be similar. Training, training, training ... and seek the wisdom of those who have 'been there', and survived it in the manner you'd prefer to emulate. Survival may hinge upon a certain amount of 'luck' in some circumstances, but it's also a serious business in which preparedness can be beneficial. I don't even like to throw dice at the table, let alone in the real world ...

I've always considered it important to possess a mixture of the awareness and understanding that the world is truly a dangerous, uncertain place ... combined with as much relevant and general training as it's possible to obtain and attempt to master ... and the philosophical acceptance of the Rule of the 7 P's ...

Thanks again for the article. Always a timely subject ...

 

[Joejojoba111]

Sorry, was going to mention how plans without practice are kinda moot. Forgot to.

Like throwing chair through window, I dunno I tried throwing stuff into a dump and it isn't always easy. And windows don't always break into little cubes. Can't hurt to try, but probably violence is best plan for violence, or try the back door

 

[walking arsenal]

ah, it all suddenly becomes so clear.

A valid point. I would try the back door of course but thats less dramatic and way to easy.

 

[Paul Gomez]

On this topic, www.DeepSurvival.com is well worth a read.

One of the best books I've read in the last few years.

Another one worth picking up is "The Survivor Personality" by Al Siebert.

 

[lysander]

On some levels I am reminded of the Governator's character in the movie "Twins"...as he explains the "rules of a crisis sitooashun."

The "What-If" game runs endlessly in my head...to the point that the wife is constantly asking which seat I would like when we eat out. She knows that I hate sitting with my back to the door. I know...it sounds lame...contrived...cowboy-esque...and like the personality quirk of someone who has seen one to many action moves , but I do it anyway. Situational awareness is something that everyone should practice, but most don't. Likely because it makes them feel "uncomfortable" to contemplate the possibility of bad things happening :banghead: , but in the end it can mean the difference between injury, death and grief..or escaping a dangerous situation with health intact.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

But -- and this is important -- they didn't need to visualize that exact scenario in order to have a mental blueprint to help them cope with it. Even minimal preparation for a minor fire would have helped them cope with the worse disaster that no one in the building could have foreseen, because they wouldn't have had to process as much new information under stress. They'd have known where the stairs were and how to navigate them, they'd have visualized themselves walking away from the office without taking time to shut down computers or locate their daytimers and briefcases, that sort of thing.

The problem is, the existing theory on evacuation of tall buildings in the event of fires at that time was -- don't evacuate. Tall buildings were divided up into zones of a few floors, and if there was a fire in YOUR ZONE, you were supposed to evacuate only to the designated evacuation floor, and then wait there for the fire department to either put out the fire, or issue instructions to leave the building. The emergency evacuation models were not based on flying a huge aircraft into the side of the building, they were based on the sequence of events following something mundane, like a waste basket catching fire.

As to the initial reaction of disbelief, a few years ago I was chatting with a building inspector who had just returned from a national conference in a major hotel. He cheerfully reported that there had been a fire alarm during one of the lectures. He said out of a room filled with several hundred building inspectors -- those same people who review plans to be sure there are enough exits -- not more than a dozen got up and left the room until the security staff came in and started yelling that this was not a drill.

 

[Fred Fuller]

I was for a time during my career in charge of a small part of an organization on an open military installation which was a potential terrorist target. We had no regularly scheduled evacuation drills for fires, bomb threats etc. but on rare occasions evacuation was called for when fire alarms went off or suspicious packages appeared.

My staff had standing instructions in the event of fire alarm, bomb threat etc. to immediately clear and lock down our facility and vacate the building, leaving the area completely. They were expressly instructed NOT to join the usual gaggle of employees gathered in the parking lot to wait for the all clear, but to go someplace else- anyplace out of the area but still on post- and wait. They were to call the facility after a half hour went by, and then every half hour thereafter until someone (most likely me) answered the phone with an all clear.

Paranoid? Some people thought so. Excessive? Again, some thought so. But I was assured my people would never be caught up in a 'gotcha' bombing, unprotected and concentrated in a crowd in a wide- open parking lot after a faked threat to get them in the open. And none of my supervisors ever questioned my SOP either. 'Course, they all wore funny little green hats to work...

lpl/nc

 

[griz]

I just read an article by a guy who investigated motorcycle accidents. He gave a typical example of a guy who had ridden accident and ticket free for decades. A car pulled out in front of him and the driver froze in the middle of the road. The rider did what he was used to: he applied the rear brake. It was a panic stop so he locked it up, and the skid mark to the impact showed that if he had used the front brake with any skill at all he wouldn't have hit. He knew the brake was there, he just never got used to using it.

Practice makes permaneat, not perfect.

 

[NMshooter]

If only I had grabbed one of those printed SOP lists in Saudi...

When you are expected to mill around in the open in case of attack you might be having a leadership failure.