A Pack or a Herd?

Amanda Ripley commenting on why there was no panic on the US Airways flight that splashed into the Hudson:

He asked again and again why people had not become violent and hysterical, until the survivor agreed it was shocking indeed.

The truth is, in almost every disaster I have studied, people treat each other with kindness and respect. Violence and panic are extremely rare. An instant camraderie springs up between strangers--on a sinking ship or a bombed-out subway car. That is the rule, not the exception.

After the terrorist bombings on the London transit system on July 7, 2005, which killed 52 people and wounded hundreds, some victims actually resisted leaving the tube station. “I needed the [others] for comfort,” one survivor explained to U.K. psychologist John Drury. “I felt better knowing that I was surrounded by people.”

One study of U.S. mining disasters found that miners tended to follow their groups even if they disagreed with the group’s decisions. Grown men trapped underground would rather make a potentially fatal decision than be left alone.

In other airplane crashes, passengers have risked their lives because they climbed over seats to regroup with the rest of their family before evacuating. In skyscraper fires, people making arduous journeys down hundreds of stairs will tend to insist that those entering the stairwell from lower floors go ahead of them. In fact, I’ve yet to meet a 9/11 survivor who didn’t help or receive help from a stranger on the way out of the towers.

Why don’t we turn into raving maniacs? Because it is in our interest to be nice to each other. Under threat, we need each other more than ever.

I don't disagree with her last comment, but I think there's more to it than that.

I suspect the likelyhood of someone living through a disaster, whether man-made or natural, are statistically lower today than at anytime in man's history. And when we do encounter disasters, they're substantially more survivable today than at any other time in our history.

However, it still doesn't hurt for a civilization's culture to set some expectations of what's acceptable or not. The phrase, "Women and children first!" wouldn't exist without the prevalence of the "me first" attitude. Woe unto us if the "me first"'s win the day. It can happen and would be a defining benchmark in our civilization's decline.