Fight or flight was probably wrong, and an example of how bad my own memory is. :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm

Fight or flight was probably wrong, and an example of how bad my own memory is. :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias So the particular reference I'm alluding to is the Tenerife Disaster. During a crisis humans do not immediately do sane things to get out of danger. Basically when the KLM plane collided with the Pan Am plane the top of the aircraft was ripped off. There was ample time for people to get out and "abandon ship" if you will. But humans don't immediately react to disasters no matter how immediate without trying to process it and understand it. Most people sat in their chairs in a daze not fully realizing that the airplane is not a safe place any longer. The people that sprang into action turned out to be the people that preplanned or at least had already planned "what would I do if things go bad?" and noticed, we've just gotten the roof torn off our plane, time to get out of dodge. What it distills down to, is always have some sort of a plan to spring into action and know what you will do if you need to get out of the airplane alive. It seems like a small thing, but just planning, ok if I need to get off this plane for whatever reason, I am jumping over these people and running out the door to the left or whatever, turns out to possibly be the difference between life and death. If we aren't prepared for it we try to process it as "the new normal" and that takes time. Exactly when it means life or death snap decisions. It is chapter 7 if you want to read it, but get the book, so much good stuff like why we have so much brand bias, why we can't trust our memory etc... and his references are great for further reading.