I agree Art, and I believe it is because people are resistant to change, and don't want reality to come snapping up at them. When it does, they tend to lock their perspective, making them dysfunctional, until as you say something hits their reset button and they adjust their perspective to suit their new reality.

If you can put people in a survival mode once, get them really immersed in it, then that should be enough to effect a permanent change in their behavior.