Human Behaviour

The "bystander effect" is an insight into human psychology. If there is only one person at the scene of a disaster, that person will take responsibility and give assistance. But if there are many people, the people hang back expecting somebody else to "take charge".

The following is from an interview with an author about surviving air disasters. In the interview they touch on the recent ditching of USAir 1549 into the Hudson river in which all 155 passengers survived. I've put in bold italic the key bit:

Question: A misconception you write about in the book is that in a plane crash, people become panicky and animalistic and pandemonium ensues. What can people actually expect in such a situation?

Answer: Panic is one of the biggest myths of disasters and emergencies. We’re accustomed to seeing pandemonium and chaos in disaster movies, but experts say that kind of unreasoning fear and hysteria almost never happens in real life.

In fact, one of the most surprising things you’ll encounter in a disaster is inaction. Believe it or not, but most people do nothing. They’re bewildered. In a stupor, they wait for instructions.

Experts say that 80 percent of us are likely to respond this way with so-called “behavioral inaction.” Only 10 percent act quickly and decisively. Fortunately, just 10 percent of us act dangerously or counterproductively.

We also shouldn’t forget that 150 ordinary people without any evacuation training managed to get off USAir 1549 without serious incident. It was “organized chaos,” they reported, which shouldn’t come as any surprise. Pushing and shoving should be expected in a narrow aluminum cylinder that was supposed to land in North Carolina instead of a frigid river.

You can read the entire interview from the Freakonomics blog.