Unthinkable_ Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why - Amanda Ripley [128]
The quote from Bruce Schneier comes from the May 17, 2007, entry on his blog: www.schneier.com/blog.
Television News
For more on how TV footage of disasters correlates with stress levels, see M.A. Schuster et al., “A National Survey of Stress Reactions After the September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks,” New England Journal of Medicine.
CHAPTER 3: FEAR
The 1980 Hostage Crisis in Colombia
Asencio’s story is drawn from my interview with him, as well as news articles from the time and his own book on the subject: Diego and Nancy Asencio with Ron Tobias, Our Man Is Inside.
The Brain and Fear
One of the best in-depth descriptions of how the brain processes fear—and all emotions—is The Emotional Brain by Joseph LeDoux.
The data about the fear reactions of World War II soldiers is from Samuel Stouffer et al., The American Soldier: Combat and Its Aftermath, Vol. II.
The study of 115 law enforcement officers involved in shooting incidents is here: J. Michael Rivard et al., “Acute Dissociative Responses in Law Enforcement Officers Involved in Critical Shooting Incidents: The Clinical and Forensic Implications,” Journal of Forensic Science.
Self-Talk in Crisis Moments
The story of a soldier’s conversation with himself comes from Mark Bowden’s book, Guests of the Ayatollah.
Perceptual Distortions in Police Shootings
Ninety-five percent of eighty officers involved in shootings reported having experienced some kind of distortion during the incident—from tunnel vision to auditory blunting to slow-motion time—according to David Klinger, “Police Responses to Officer-Involved Shootings,” NIJ Journal, no. 253 (Jan. 2006).
Interestingly, another study of forty-four officers found that 9 percent actually experienced an out-of-body experience during shooting. See R. M. Solomon and J. M. Horn, “Post-Shooting Traumatic Reactions: A Pilot Study,” in Psychological Services for Law Enforcement, ed. J.T. Reese and H. A. Goldstein (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1986), 383–394.
The story of the police officer who saw “beer cans” floating past his face comes from Alexis Artwohl, “Perceptual and Memory Distortion During Officer-Involved Shootings,” FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (Oct. 2002): 18; www.fbi.gov/publications/leb/2002/oct02leb.pdf/.
Slow-Motion Time
At press time, Eagleman’s results (co-authored with his graduate students Chess Stetson and Matthew Fiesta) are under review for publication. He shared the results with me over the phone and via e-mail.
For more on this subject, also see the fascinating work of Peter Hancock, a professor at the University of Central Florida who researches time distortion and other stress effects for the U.S. military; http://www.mit.ucf.edu/timeperception.asp.
Learning to Do Better
For more on how police officers learn to master their fear response, see Alexis Artwohl and Loren W. Christensen, Deadly Force Encounters.
The importance of knowledge in reducing injury rates on 9/11 is from Gershon’s survey.
For more on Siddle’s combat-performance research, see Bruce K. Siddle, Sharpening the Warrior’s Edge.
Tunnel Vision
To experience a mild version of this phenomenon for yourself, check out the video demos put together by the Visual Cognition Lab at the University of Illinois: http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/djs_lab/demos.htm.
The details on the crash of the Eastern Air Lines jet in 1972 come from the official investigation: National Transportation Safety Board, Eastern Air Lines, Inc., L-1011, N310EA, Miami, Florida, December 29, 1972.
The story of the crash-landing of United Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1989 comes largely from the recollections of Al Haynes, the plane’s captain, which can be found here: airdisaster.com/eyewitness/ua232.shtml.
The preliminary results of the Rhode Island cell-phone study come from the following press release: http://www.uri.edu/news/releases/html/ 02-0610.htm.
Learning to Do Better, Part II
The juggling study is here: Bogdan Draganski et al., “Neuroplasticity: Changes in Grey