Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Why people ‘freeze’ in an emergency: temporal and cognitive constraints on survival responses.
AU - Leach, John
PY - 2004/6
Y1 - 2004/6
N2 - Many witnesses attest that victims of a disaster often perish despite reasonable possibilities for escaping because their behavior during the initial moments of the accident was inappropriate to the situation. Frequently witnesses report victims ‘freezing’ in the face of danger. Objective: The aim of this paper was to identify the possible factors underpinning ‘freezing’ behavior in disaster victims. Methods: Witness testimonies, survivor debriefings, and official inquiry reports from shipwreck and aircraft emergencies were analyzed for their behavioral content. Results: It was found that ‘freezing’ behavior was a frequently cited response by witnesses to a disaster. ‘Freezing’ causes evacuation delays which increase the danger, establishing a closed loop process and further extending evacuation delays. This behavior can be accounted for by considering the temporal constraints on cognitive information processing in a rapidly unfolding, real-time environment. Conclusion: Cognitive limitations help to explain why survival training works and why there is a need for a survival culture to be developed. They also highlight the need to understand the behavior of children under threat as being different from that of adults due to the different stages of their neurological and cognitive development. There are implications for the development of proactive, rather than passive, life support equipment.
AB - Many witnesses attest that victims of a disaster often perish despite reasonable possibilities for escaping because their behavior during the initial moments of the accident was inappropriate to the situation. Frequently witnesses report victims ‘freezing’ in the face of danger. Objective: The aim of this paper was to identify the possible factors underpinning ‘freezing’ behavior in disaster victims. Methods: Witness testimonies, survivor debriefings, and official inquiry reports from shipwreck and aircraft emergencies were analyzed for their behavioral content. Results: It was found that ‘freezing’ behavior was a frequently cited response by witnesses to a disaster. ‘Freezing’ causes evacuation delays which increase the danger, establishing a closed loop process and further extending evacuation delays. This behavior can be accounted for by considering the temporal constraints on cognitive information processing in a rapidly unfolding, real-time environment. Conclusion: Cognitive limitations help to explain why survival training works and why there is a need for a survival culture to be developed. They also highlight the need to understand the behavior of children under threat as being different from that of adults due to the different stages of their neurological and cognitive development. There are implications for the development of proactive, rather than passive, life support equipment.
KW - survival psychology
KW - cognitive paralysis
KW - working memory
M3 - Journal article
VL - 75
SP - 539
EP - 542
JO - Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine
JF - Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine
SN - 0095-6562
IS - 6
ER -