interesting how the % of people that panic and run scream is close to the number that calmly help is so similar.


http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150128-how-to-survive-a-disaster

Interesting article.

My gym is fairly large--2 floors. Twice, while I was on the treadmill (on the lower floor), the fire alarm went off--flashing lights, beeping horns, etc. No one moved to leave -- including me!

Both were false alarms-- 2 of several due to a fault in the system.

I wonder how much our alertness and reaction time has been dulled by false alarms and a general sense of security.

After "n" number of false alarms, what does it take to let everyone know "this one is for real."

I know that we should all react as if all the alarms are real, but human nature is not so rational, especially after a number of "false positives."

Excellent. We need more psychologists who train people to not die.

One of the defining moments of my early childhood was when I learned of the murder of Kitty Genovese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese). When I found out that several of her neighbors heard her calls for help but none of them called 911, I resolved that nobody would ever die because I failed to make a phone call. I was perhaps six years old.

Starting from being determined to never fail to make a phone call, it didn't feel like much of a stretch to be determined to never fail to act.

The same article showed up on my F-book feed. My original response is buried somewhere in the archives, but it was along these lines:

The phenomenon is the same one as "Diffusion of Responsibility" where no one wants to be the first to break ranks and act. Everybody assumes "the other guy" will deal with it. There's the aforementioned Kitty Genovese murder, where nobody wanted to step up and was content to the the "other guy(s)" handle it. Also, I have personally witnessed this in a situation where there was no doubt about the correct course of action, but only very few acted.

It was a fire alarm, that went off in the middle of the afternoon, at a hotel. I did the whole shoes, coat, briefcase, out the door, down the hall, down three flights of stairs, and out the emergency exit. Total time from when the alarm when off to leaving my room was probably about 90 seconds. Out of the hundred or so guests that were on my floor, only 3 of us headed for the exit. Everybody else was standing in their doorways asking if they should do something.

By the time the fire department shut off the alarm, 20 minutes later, all of the hotel staff had evacuated. But, only about 30 guests were standing in the parking lot. There were probably 300 people in the hotel at that time.

Now, I don't know if there is a more clearcut course of action, then when a fire alarm goes off in your hotel, but most of the guests failed to act.

I'm not going to say I acted flawlessly as I headed for the far stairwell instead of the one near my room. As I noted in previous posts, you get dumb when stressed.

What was interesting to note was that most of the hotel was filled with attendies for a Baptist convention. So, the makeup of the guests was unually homogenous (religious, and retires and families with multiple teenyboppers). I can't say how a more diverse group would have reacted, but "group think" was definitely a factor in this case.

That explains the calm: they were all packing water!

The popular story of the Genovese murder had more to do with terribly incomplete information and political disinformation than the fabled "nobody cared" narrative.

It turns out that reality is more complicated than the New York papers and police commissioner would have liked it to be.

Or at least treat it as a serious drill.

The article seemed more about situations where it's clear the danger is real. From what I've read elsewhere, staying put has historically been a good option. You're still alive now, so whatever you've been doing has been working, so keep doing it. Ie, nothing. If you do move, not only might you move from your known-safe place into more danger, but the movement itself might attract danger - if the danger is a predator looking for targets. Basically, the 75% who stay put have evolution on their side.

It doesn't necessarily work for modern hazards, which probably aren't predator animals.

Good article, thank you, I hadn't read that before.

I won't let it change how I act with regard to making calls .