Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Titanic vs. Lusitania: Time Determined Who Survived | LiveScience

Titanic vs. Lusitania: Time Determined Who Survived | LiveScience: "The time people have during survival situations might affect whether they behave selfishly or socially. Examining two shipwrecks, the Titanic and the Lusitania, researchers recently found the longer passengers had to react to the disaster, the more likely they were to follow social mores. The less time, the more selfishly passengers behaved."

How people react to disaster is vitally important to know. If you are not prepared this is how you might react.

But there are other factors, a major one being normalcy bias, or the desire to continue as if nothing much is happening. A lot of people have died because they tried to use the same door they came in and ignored the clearly marked emergency exit no one was using.

I always find it odd that when the fire alarms go off in a supermarket or mall and no one seems to leave because of it.

It is an easy skill to cultivate, looking for emergency exits and the like wherever you go. It may come in handy someday.