Public Resilience
I read an interesting account of mass "panic" during disasters. I have to say that my own limited experience corroborates Professor Fischhoff's claim that there is a "public resilience" that emerges whenever the circumstances call for extraordinary humanity:Whatever its source, the myth of panic is a threat to our welfare. Given the difficulty of using the term precisely and the rarity of actual panic situations, the cleanest solution is for the politicians and the press to avoid the term altogether. It's time to end chatter about "panic" and focus on ways to support public resilience in an emergency.
(nytimes.com/2005/08/07...fischhoff.html)
Labels: politics, public-safety, society
