When you think about how you might respond during a potential disaster, such as Hurricanes Katrina or Gustav, you probably wonder whether or not you'll panic. But, contrary to popular belief, most people don't resort to irrational hysterics in the midst of extremely stressful situations, like fires, plane crashes and violent storms.
In fact, regardless of the scenario, they tend to display a few surprising behaviors, some of which help them through the experience, while others may threaten their survival.
Fortunately, even if you're prone to habits that fall in the latter category, you're not necessarily doomed. Experts say that with a little bit of effort, most people can determine their weak spots and know how to compensate for them should the worst happen.
In Depth: How We Really Respond In A Crisis
"Learning or glimpsing what your disaster personality might be like through science and stories of survivors gives you an advantage," says Amanda Ripley, a Time magazine reporter who covers homeland security and risk in Washington, D.C., and author of the new book, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes--And Why.
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Common Reactions
So if people don't panic--what do they do?
In every disaster, Ripley explains, we move through what she calls the survival arc, a series of phases that include denial, deliberation and the decisive moment. Within those phases--which may vary in length and even repeat themselves--people exhibit a few common reactions.
During the denial phase (which may start with a decision to buy a house on a fault line or neglecting to buy flood insurance) people have a tendency to move slowly. In talking to survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, for instance, Ripley found that after the buildings were hit many people procrastinated leaving their offices, looking for personal items to take with them before eventually heading for the stairs.
The behavior, similar to the way plane crash passengers will try to take their carry-on bags with them as they exit a burning plane, is thought to be people's attempt to prepare themselves for the unknown and a reflection of their desire for normalcy in a crisis.
In the deliberation phase, as people's bodies begin responding to fear, they often lose their abilities to reason and take in their surroundings. Suddenly they might have trouble performing simple tasks, like putting on a life jacket, and may lose their senses.
And in the decisive moment or action phase, many find themselves experiencing symptoms of paralysis, in which they become frozen or numb. The feeling is one commonly reported by rape victims, and most emergency officials have witnessed the behavior at one point or another. It also hit passengers of the MV Estonia ferry, which sank in the Baltic Sea in the fall of 1994. Witnesses reported that, after the first signs of danger, some people appeared immobilized--conscious but unable to react and try to escape.
Individual Traits
What behaviors we end up exhibiting depends in part on our proximity to a disaster, which can indicate the extent of our trauma, and our personal vulnerabilities, says Lawrence Palinkas, a professor in the school of social work at the University of Southern California. Some people, either due to a genetic predisposition or environmental factors, just have better coping abilities than others.
Among the traits that help a person deal with a crisis is a strong sense of confidence or self efficacy. People who have a perceived sense of control of their behavior in their daily lives, rather than believing they're controlled by fate or by others, have been shown to be more likely to get through disasters such as hurricanes or the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Palinkas says. Optimists also tend to fare better in crises than pessimists, possibly because they have more flexible personalities and can adapt better to change.
On the other side of the coin, people with neurotic personalities or pre-existing mental health problems and those with limited social support don't cope as well with stress, especially the traumatic kind.
How To Cope
Experts say if you're worried about how you might hold up in the event of a disaster you may be able to better psychologically prepare yourself.
Kathryn Dardeck, a clinical psychologist and chair of the Massachusetts Disaster Response Network, recommends that people get acquainted with the different stages of a disaster, including preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. By learning about what they involve, you can give yourself some knowledge to fall back on in a disaster.
Evaluating how you've dealt with any disasters--big or small--in the past can also help you pinpoint your weaknesses and lay out a plan to address them, says Dr. Alan Manevitz, a Manhattan-based clinical psychiatrist and senior attending at Lenox Hill Hospital. Practicing may help you feel you're more in control in the event of a crisis.
On a larger scale, Ripley would like to see communities and individuals work to become more resilient in ways that will benefit them regardless if there is a disaster. For example, she cites community block parties, which can help neighbors get to know each other and create a phone tree and network to support one another.
In the end, this kind of preparation might not make the difference between life and death, but it might help you worry a little less and react a little better if, and when, something does happen.
"In terms of ongoing survival, the people who are prepared, who learned to think optimistically, who've built psychological resilience--those people will definitely survive better," Dardeck says.