32. The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley
Subtitled “Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - And Why”
This looks at how people tend to react when encountering disaster (plane crashes, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, shipwrecks etc), and how this affects their survival chances. There’s a lot of different disasters, and accounts from survivors, in this book.
Ripley talks about what she calls the survival arc - split into denial, deliberation and the decisive moment, and argues that how quickly people move through this arc is a major factor in how likely they are to survive.
So denial can lead to delays in taking action, which can be fatal.
Deliberation is about recognising that something’s wrong and deciding what to do about it - which is hampered by the fact that most people find it very hard to think clearly and rationally when thrust into an unexpected life threatening situation, and is also strongly influenced by groupthink.
And finally, the decisive moment, where people take action. Interestingly, people shutting down and freezing in place is far more common than blind panic in disasters. There’s plenty of accounts in the book of survivors making their way past people just sitting there doing nothing.
One important point to take away, is that people’s survival chances improve if they’ve prepared in advance. That includes simple things like checking the nearest exit is on a plane, or taking the stairs down from a hotel room, so that your brain has a rehearsed shortcut to an escape route if one’s needed.
This was a very interesting book to read.