Lethargic reaction to emergency situations.
When a disaster or catastrophe strikes, humans develop a chain of reactions to survive the ordeal. It is imperative for the innate and human reflex action to come into play when such a situation courts death and destruction as simulated by their senses. However, when disaster strikes, the most common way of human reaction is usually lethargic, rather than the action of fleeing from the scene of imminent danger and destruction.
Amanda Ripley in her book, the unthinkable, gives a model of how regular people react to situations of disaster and their typical initial response to situations of emergency. A study that was done of the survivors of the 9/ 11 attack on the Twin Towers in the United States of America revealed that the survivors spent roughly six minutes in the building making calls and shutting down computers and doing other insignificant activities. It is worthwhile noting that these people spend a lot of time before they decided to head downstairs and flee from the crumbling towers.
When evacuation started, it took twice as long of the projected time for emergency response timelines. Ripley provides a significant approach which attempts to depict the behavior of the people in case of disaster to save lives in the future.
The model of Ripley in the case of denial and lethargy in the initial phases of reaction is usually followed but quick and panic actions, especially by regular people. An example is the hurricane Katrina which struck New Orleans, where 80% of the people heeded the warning and fled to safer zones. The question now arises on what happened to the 20% who had not moved before the Katrina struck. Against the preconceived notion that some were too poor to engage emergency responses immediately, Ripley argues from the survivor’s point of view that it was a matter of one’s belief. Those who had survived past hurricanes like the ones of Louisiana felt that they could survive this one too and ignored the warnings to vacate the disaster zone. Amanda observes that "about 91 percent of Americans live in places at a moderate-to-high risk of earthquakes, volcanoes, terrorism, according to an estimate calculated in 2006"(10). In this regard, it is important to note that in a case of disaster; past experiences in a similar situation is not always the best option and point of reference on how to handle the present situation.
In times of disaster, there are times when those who had experienced such kind of situation try to play the hero or rather disaster experts. They can put themselves in strategies of handling such situation like knowing where exits are and the quickest way out of the zones. When disaster strikes, there can be exposure to stress which can result in helping handle the situation. However, in this regard, scientists and psychologists have argued that in cases of fear, there could be the production of cortisol by the body, which hinders the brain from handling complex situations and act immediately. When people are afraid, they usually lose their ability to solve problems and come up with a solution in a prompt manner which is detrimental as it can cause slowness in times of disaster.
Adam benforado in his book, Unfair – The New Science of Criminal Justice, he makes it a supreme concern on how people react to a certain situation or a person the moment it stimulates their senses. Most of the people have the attitude of becoming lethargic and drawing emotional dimensions when handling a situation. The most common one is to treat the situation or the person with disgust, which triggers a chain of reaction which leads to drawing conclusions littered with bias. When Benforado intimates of the ills which have engulfed the criminal justice system, he does so to prove that injustice is not in the system, but rather it is something which concerns on how our minds operate, and how our behaviors are shaped by automatic processes of reaction.
The lethargic aspect on which people have on a victim of the crime determines their next step in response to that particular situation. The key bias in which people have is related to our emotions, where the first reaction can be disgust, a kind of emotion in which people have on a repulsive stimulation to their body senses, albeit key to survival. People usually apply disgust to label the victim and then go on to find problems and faults with them. Benforado gives an example of David, who was dehumanized by the people who knew him as a drunkard. This is label the people had branded him, and their first reaction was to appeal to their lethargic emotional component, rather than going to check on him.
The label which the people give to a particular person or a situation determines the assumption in which they will use to draw conclusions on the matter. The assumptions will cloud their judgments, making their conclusions on the actions of the person or a particular situation to be far from the truth. Ultimately, the 20% who had not heeded the warning of the Katrina in New Orleans, probably used assumptions to come to the conclusion that they can survive the hurricane, just as they did in Louisiana. Labels people give to victims are key determinants on the course of action they will take in the handling of cases.
A situation can happen like the way I was involved in a car accident in North Hollywood, and the reaction of the police was that they should not report the call in the accident. This is a classic case of labeling in that they reasoned that everybody in Hollywood is rich and is capable of handling situations no matter how grave they are. In this case, the police had placed a greater value on the situation of the people who live in Hollywood, and this made them draw conclusions based on assumptions, despite the fact that they were far from the truth. People will usually be compelled to stick with the original assessment of a situation, even when they are presented with contrary evidence. In conclusion, when disaster strike or something happens in our sight, how those around and oneself responds can just save, or lose lives.
sources
Benforado, Adam. Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice. First edition. Crown Publishers, 2015.
Ripley, Amanda. The Unthinkable. 1st ed. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009. Print.
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