The normalcy bias refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of the government to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred that it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.
I'm so jaded it hurts.
You're not jaded bro.
ReplyDeleteyou speak the truth
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this post, maybe too much.
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic that the fire alarm in my house went off as I was reading this and I reacted as if everything was normal.
ReplyDeleteIt was a false alarm of course.