I’m watching the first episode of the show Lost right now, and it starts with a big chaotic scene that takes place in the aftermath of a plane crash. People are shown to be scrambling around in circles, screaming for no reason, and not helping anyone else to survive. Some people are just standing in place not moving away from danger and not checking their surroundings.
I’m very curious if people generally actually act like this in times of crisis. I feel like there’s no way people become that stupid when something bad is happening, but I’m sure someone here knows the answer.
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People are stupid always. Throw in emotions and it gets worse. I’m included in that. I guarantee the majority of us, OP included, would act similarly to the folks in Lost.
Source: Ask any first responder on their view of the general public and how they react to any emergency. Ask anyone in retail/customer service/fast food how smart the general public is. Then look at how folks were during COVID.
People are often stupid even in non-crisis times. They’re EXTRA stupid in crisis.
think of 2020. people bought toilet paper like crazy
It’s easy to freeze when you’re panicked. Especially in an extreme situation that’s nothing like anything you’ve ever experienced before. How could you know what to do if you’ve never had to do it before?
That being said; the ending to Lost is ass, don’t let anyone or any comments that might come after this convince you otherwise. Save yourself the time and find a new show to get started on
It’s not people being "stupid." Parts of your brain can basically stop functioning in moments like that. The ability to access logical thinking can be non-existent as the animal brain kicks in.
Save yourself the trouble and stop watching
People have different responses to fear regardless of how smart they are. Some people run, some people freeze, some people just have their brains short circuit
Exactly where they want us!
Some people step up under pressure, others fold.
My mother comes to mind… Shouting won’t put out a fire.
Everyone is a hero in their own minds. In reality, you have no idea how you’re going to react in a crisis situation unless you’ve experienced it before or are trained for it.
Set off a smoke detector and report back.
I was listening to a podcast recently talking about human behavior in a situatial crisis, and the science says yes, most people lose critical thinking. Not all, but most.
Yes. Which is why I step up and become the incident commander. I’ve taken trainings through multiple agencies. I’ve dealt with Katrina and other disasters. Someone needs to delegate and humans have no idea how to communicate, but in crisis, they can usually take orders
People panic and react without thinking.
Some people are calm in times of crisis. Other people do completely shut down when they panic.
My sister is one of the later.
Once, I was cooking and she noticed I had accidentally set my oven mit on fire. She just kept screaming. No words. No indication of what was wrong. Just loud screaming and flailing in my direction.
Eventually I saw the teeny tiny flame, walked to the sink, and extinguished it.
Honestly, there are people who are good in a crisis and people who are useless. I happen to be good in a crisis and then have a breakdown after the crisis is over. I have always been that way. My mother becomes over-dramatic and manic in a crisis. I have a family member who found someone who died and had to call her mother to ask what to do. She literally couldn’t remember the number to call 911. I mean that literally. She had to be told. I think that is why some people are cut out to be first responders and other people should never consider that role.
Most people aren’t very organized, but I’d say 85% of people just shut down and do nothing; 10% of people do anything whatsoever (ie panic), and 5% of people lead.
I was in the first group of responders to Karean Airline Flight 801, that crashed in Guam. I barely remember that night. But even for the military, unless you train for that level of event, it is a bit overwhelming. We’re use to shipboard firefighting, hazardous material spills, rescuing a single person. The briefing we had prepared us to know that we were going to enter an area that there not expected to be that many survivors. I don’t recall comign across any. So I’m sure there is a bit of Hollywood in the lost scene. But I wouldn’t blame anyone for losing their minds. I’ve been involved with Scouts for 15 years. And we train for first aid all the time. Mostly for those accidents that you will get at camp. But the idea is to remain calm as a first aid responder. In mass casualty, you not only have to remain calm but also provide leadership to those who just experienced a life threatening event. To keep them calm and give them direction to keep them safe.
It’s not that they are idiots, it’s they have just gone through a traumatic event and the mind and body goes into a survival and coping mode.
Yes, unless the person has military/police/fire/emt/er experience you’re asking people to act rationally in situations they have no experience with so they are more than likely to perform less than optimally.
>…that takes place in the aftermath of a plane crash.
Confusion and disorientation can be a symptom of shock.
In a crisis I tend to jump in and do what needs to be done, then have my meltdown at a later time.
I have nothing to add but it genuinely blows my mind that people are still discovering lost for the first time, yet I’m happy because it’s such a great show. Enjoy the ride OP.
Neurodivergent people excel in a crisis, interestingly
Yes. They going to shock and they go into freeze mode or they freak out and run in circle screaming. But mostly they just freeze in place.
One time I was in a coffee shop and somebody began to have a seizure and I was the only person that moved and I started getting orders to like call 911 and the person picked up the phone and just stared at it and I was like call 911 and I had to tell them every single thing to say because they literally were dumbfounded.
The ambulance showed up and took the person away and the person asked if I was a nurse or a doctor or something and I said no but I’ve been through a lot of trauma in my life 🤷🏼 and they were honestly surprised that anybody had helped or even called 911.
After the ambulance left with the person I actually looked around at everybody else and there was people with their coffee cup halfway to their mouth Frozen in place and literally hadn’t moved the entire time.
Totally normal and totally baffles me.
I’ve seen so many videos of people catching their cooking on fire and kind of just standing there flailing instead of doing literally anything that could result in the food no longer being on fire. I’m sure a bigger emergency would result in even dumber responses.
You can’t really control how your body reacts to a stressful situation. Some people get very serious and solve the problem, and others go into animalistic fight, flight, or freeze. And some people think they’re doing the first thing but are uneducated and are actually doing something that makes the problem worse. And the same person can be multiple of these in different situations.
Maybe not stupid but panicked, which in a time of crisis.. what’s the difference
Yes. In the words of Agent K: "A person is smart. People are dumb, violent, panicky animals.’
They’re in shock – I broke my eye socket mountain biking (clocked by the handle bars), and I was in such shock I just yelled over and over again until someone helped me. I have a feeling most plane crash survivors would probably be in shock… If you somehow came across a crash, you’d probably try to help (or at least not be running around yelling), but if you’d just fallen out of the sky, you’d probably be too freaked out to do much too
It’s not about being stupid. It’s just about not knowing what to do in that situation and being shellshocked, especially in large groups. When there is no direction, people flail. That’s why in emergencies, it’s better for one person to take the lead and direct other people. You point at a person and say “you: call 911” vs. saying “somebody call 911”
Sometimes…
We lived in Valencia Ca. during the Northridge earthquake. If you were there, you know what a terrifying experience it was. I take exception with some of the comments here. Not every person is going to respond the same way. Not every person’s going to turn into a victim. Many of us were almost reacting immediately after the first quakes hit. To a person, the whole neighborhood was outside in front, all of us were verbally yelling to each other, and making sure no one was trapped or severely injured. Checking for fires, water leaks, gas leaks etc. once we ascertained no serious injuries were found, we all began dragging emergency supplies from our garages and houses. Everyone spent the next 5 nights camped in their front or backyard. To those out there who assume everyone except first responders turn into quivering incoherent idiots, rethink your assertions. We are a resilient society.
most people yes.
some people have training for crisis situations and military experience helps too because they are trained in stressful situations too. those are the people who stay calm and make good decisions during crisis because they have experience.
You fall to the level of your training
Adrenalin dumps can really alter your state of mind. Learning to ride the barrel on shallow reefs or Buds training can help you cope for real life.
They are in shock. And dead.
Oh shit I should have said "spoiler alert."
In a situation like that, your body has 3 reactions: fight, flight, or fawn.
Fight: these are the people who can move, who can act, who are cognizant, terrified, but ready to fucking go.
Flight: these are the people who panic and run, the scared rabbiters who flee the scene, the ones running around maybe even not knowing where they’re running to, just that they need to fucking run.
Fawn: these are the people who resign themselves to the situation, they give in, they stand there screaming or crying, they don’t move, they’re frozen, they’re generally helpless on their own without something to prod them out of their fawn state, they’re the ones you might look at like they’re crazy because they might not even be hurt at all.
A plane crash like this causes Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is what you’re seeing in that scene, people in throes of it – the "thousand yard stare", more properly called dissociating, the crying, the screaming, the blood, the bodies, the smoke, fires, post-crash explosions, none of this is fucking okay or will leave a person with a sound mind.
So yes, that scene was very accurate, honestly.
Yes. You are not using your brain in a crisis situation, because you are in instant reaction mode, which is often one of three different reactions: fight, flight, or freeze.
I’m a social worker for youth and we’ve had to do a lot of trauma and crisis training for my job, so we’ve actually gone over, at length, how a person is responding in a crisis situation, and how we, as social workers, can try to engage the "thinking brain" in such a situation to reduce the crisis for the individual and to help them work through the cause of it.