Meeting disaster, why many people stand dead?

Having a sudden disaster, someone quickly responded and escaped, there were people who just stood there doing nothing. Why?

By studying people's reactions to a sudden disaster, psychologists concluded that people often do not react promptly and often take actions that put them at risk .

The escaped passengers lurk next to the burning plane to take pictures.

Strange deaths

There have been many cases of death that are very romantic, as when tsunamis hit the coast many people still calmly watch or take photos instead of running really fast to high places; when the plane has an accident at takeoff or landing, many people still linger for luggage, not running immediately to the exit door .

Even if someone escaped from a burning plane, instead of running to a safe place, they were standing nearby to take pictures to post on Facebook and Twitter.

Those who were lucky to survive those disasters, thanks in part to their fortunes, were mainly due to their quick response and rational action.

Life skills training courses do not teach people what to do when they encounter a disaster, but mainly train them what NOT to do in that situation.

Psychologists say 80-90% of people do not react quickly and reasonably when encountering a disaster.

During the 2011 earthquake in Japan, security cameras in supermarkets showed that instead of running out immediately, many people stayed there trying to keep the bottles on the counter from falling to the ground.

Just like in the passenger plane that caught fire at Denver airport (USA) in July this year, the passengers who escaped safely kept hiding next to the flaming fire plane to take pictures of themselves. happy regardless of whether it can explode at any time.

According to researchers, a person who is extremely intelligent does not react better than an average-minded person. At this time the brain is called a fog phenomenon , paralyzing all thoughts and rational.

In 2001, a Cambridge university lecturer flipped the boat while sailing in the Isle of Wight. Although he had brought a mobile phone, but it took him about 20 minutes to remember, and called his father who was in Dubai (UAE) far away . 5,000km, instead of calling the force Coast guard nearby to rescue.

Psychologists have analyzed that the reason people have self-threatening reactions is because of the following reasons:

1. Paralyzed

The deer crossing the road and meeting the car headlights is just standing still.

When we think of human behavior when faced with disasters, we often associate with images of people fleeing, hands swinging over their heads like in movies. But in fact many people do nothing, they just stand still.

Specifically, in the case of 3 terrorists who plunged into the car and stabbed pedestrians on the London Bridge on June 5, 2017, a policeman directly prevented terrorists from recounting that time. The person stood still blankly "like a deer through a car headlamp," there was no reaction or escape.

The reason for this is due to the instincts inherited from human ancestors' prehistoric ancestors. When we are afraid, the brain almost stops working, the body will increase the production of lots of adrenaline, the muscles will stiffen, the cerebellum in the neck will send signals to the body to stay still.

This is also a very basic survival instinct of most animals, being the ultimate coping attitude when facing a danger of not being able to flee, they will cower in place not to move to avoid being amused. Meat eating discovered.

In the terrible fire in Portugal recently, many people have perished because they kept lingering, waiting until the last minute to evacuate, so they could not keep up.

2. No longer able to think awake

During the Gulf War in 1990, Israel was attacked by Iraq by Scud. The Israeli government worries that the Iraqi side will use rocket transport with toxic chemicals to attack as they did many times in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

All Israelis were given poison masks and antidotes, every household had to build a shelter, when alerted, family members must immediately run into shelters and Wear a gas mask.

From January 19 to 21, the Iraqi side launched 23 missiles carrying 11 tons of explosives into Israel's capital, Tel Aviv, but fortunately there was no attack with chemical toxins.

About 1,000 people were injured, but in fact, only 234 people (22%) were directly caused by the missiles, the remaining more than 800 were self-inflicted on their own because of their wrong actions.

Eleven people died of asphyxiation due to a mask but did not unlock the air filter, several hundred others injected themselves with antidote even though they were completely uninfected at all, and 40 others had their legs broken. when running into shelter.

So, what happened?

Although in the best conditions, our brain is still confused and offers very slow treatment while disaster happens very quickly.

When the aircraft encounters a problem and the passenger must evacuate urgently, many people are still struggling to remove the seat belt lock.

Air safety regulations require aircraft manufacturers to design how to secure all passengers out of the plane within 90 seconds. But with this time, many awkward passengers have not removed their seat belts.

In a disaster, the speed of our thinking is from bad to very bad. First, the brain will order the body to produce hormone dopamine, which helps the body to relax and relax.

It sounds paradoxical, but it plays an important role in preparing the body to respond to danger. Dopamine will activate the body to produce many more hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. And this is where things get messed up.

The mixture of these hormones will interrupt the activity of the part of the brain in the forehead, which controls functions such as processing and deciding actions, distinguishing right from wrong, anticipating, while we need it most. .

Consequently, we no longer have the ability to think consciously, forget what we learn about protecting ourselves and make wrong decisions.

3. Thinking outwardly

To cope with a difficult situation, everyone thinks that I will think of a way to handle it wisely. In fact, the opposite is true, then we can only come up with a single solution and repeat it even if the solution fails.

Typically, the design of seat belts of aircraft seats must be adjusted for this. In the past, the lock position was high near the chest, but the investigation of aircraft accidents showed that the passengers just stared down to find a lock to remove the cord when the plane crashed.

And even experienced pilots, when the plane crashed, they just stared intently at a single control device.

Injured people spoil the cerebral cortex of the wound and also show such offensive thinking in everyday life.

4. Keep up the daily routine

Floods are about to overflow, many people are still struggling to find purses, gas stove valve locks, electric circuit breakers in the house.

A lot of people were killed because whether they had escaped a burning house or were about to be engulfed by the flood, they tried to come back just to get a good wallet to check if they had locked the gas stove, disconnected the circuit breaker .

It seems crazy to die just because of those meaningless actions, but it happens so often that psychologists call "stereotyped behavior".

Every day, when we leave the house, one of the first things to do is grab the wallet, put the key in the bag. This repeated throughout our lives, so they became an automatic behavior, an unconscious reflex.

When Emirates 521 civilian aircraft was on fire and had to make an emergency landing at Dubai International Airport last year, the passenger compartment was filled with smoke. Yet many passengers still stay trying to find hand luggage in the compartment on the top of the seat.

When the Emirates 521 plane crashed, it made an emergency landing in Dubai last year, many passengers still lingered on their luggage.

There have been many cases similar to those of Asiana Airlines 214 in an accident at San Francisco International Airport (USA) in July 2013 and British Airways 2276 flight was on fire while taking off at Las International Airport. Vegas (USA) in September 2015.

In everyday life, our brains depend a lot on familiarity. Under normal conditions, we automatically retrieve luggage when the plane landed to release the free mind but focus on the upcoming work.

In an emergency situation, the brain is unable to adapt and process new information. Therefore, our psychological state tends to assume that everything is still normal, so passengers still flirt with their luggage, nothing but hurry.

5. Dismiss reality

When the tsunami struck Pukhet beach, Thailand, there were still many people who refused to evacuate to high places
Because of this, many people at beaches in Thailand and Indonesia were killed because despite tsunami warnings rushing to the coast to see the tsunami sweeping ashore in the Indian Ocean earthquake-tsunami disaster year 2004.

This is due to 2 reasons:

1. One , that they are not aware of the situation is very dangerous because they do not believe in reality.
2. Two , what is often seen when a fire is as big as a forest fire, they don't want to give up a familiar place, like their house, and having to leave means accepting the fact that it will be burned. clean.

Therefore, they kept hesitating to evacuate, still thinking that everything would be fine in the beginning, until it was too late because they could not imagine the extremely fast movement and terrible destruction of a forest fire.

When the Twin Towers in New York caught fire because the hijackers stabbed the plane, those in the upper floors of the fire still hesitated for more than 5 minutes to evacuate.

Scientists have long discovered that most of us are very bad when estimating the risks. When danger comes, our brain analyzes the situation based on emotion rather than on a factual basis, avoiding stressful factors and reassuring ourselves that things are not too bad.

This explains why many people know they are sick but wait until three, four months later to see a doctor when the disease has become serious.

Also, during the terrorist attack Al-Qaeda flew the plane into the twin towers in September 2001, when there was a fire alarm, people on the upper floors kept waiting for more than five minutes to evacuate the floor. below.

So, how do we do it?

Perhaps you're wondering if you can't count on your natural survival instincts, how do we react?

Rescue and emergency treatment specialists recommend that to cope with a natural disaster such as storms, tsunamis, floods or other accidents such as house fires, crashing cars . you must Prepared in the beginning of a previous response script.

At the same time, you must regularly practice the correct manipulation to save yourself instead of the instinctive acts of danger. You must always practice until it is so mature that it becomes a natural reflex.

By doing so, your survivability is very high and you can save loved ones' lives compared to "waiting for new water to jump".

And always remember, survival depends on your reaction and your actions , not heroic actions like in movies or on your very wrong unconscious instincts.