In any survival scenario, your own mind is one of your greatest assets, but also one of your most formidable enemies. The human brain exhibits several behaviors intended to help us cope with traumatic experiences. Some are well-known, such as the fight-or-flight response, while others aren't necessarily common knowledge. In order to think logically and make the right decisions under pressure, survival-minded individuals must be aware of these mental distortions, and be prepared to overcome them.

Chris Hernandez of Breach Bang Clear

Chris Hernandez of Breach Bang Clear

The following article from Breach Bang Clear contributor Chris Hernandez sheds light on a phenomenon known as normalcy bias. As a veteran of both the Marine Corps and the Army National Guard who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a veteran police officer of two decades, Chris has considerable experience with disastrous and traumatic events.

Editor's Note: The following article was originally published by our friends at Breach Bang Clear. It appears here in its entirety with their permission. For more from the Mad Duo and crew, go to BreachBangClear.com or follow them on Facebook or Instagram.

Term: Normalcy Bias

Category: Situational Awareness and Perception

Application(s) of Use: Understanding natural human response to unexpected, life-threatening stress

Related to: Survival stress reactions

Definition: Normalcy Bias is “a bias to believe that things will always function the way things normally function”; in other words, the natural human tendency to try to fit anomalies into something understandable and routine. For example, people might assume gunfire in a mall must actually be teenagers screwing around with fireworks, or think a man walking into a bank with a mask must be stopping by on his way to a costume party.

standing-on-car-wreckage-after-a-disaster

Into the Weeds: According to Wikipedia, “About 70% of people reportedly display normalcy bias in disasters.” This author experienced it himself when he walked up to a car at a minor accident scene, saw a decapitated child’s head on the floorboard, and tried to convince himself the child must have been stuck between the seat and door with only his head protruding onto the floorboard. He saw it in others when he arrived just after a prolonged police shootout in broad daylight, and multiple witnesses said, “I thought someone must have been filming a movie or something.”

Just recently in Las Vegas we saw video of a man in the audience yelling “It’s fireworks, it’s fireworks, stop!” as an active shooter fired hundreds of rounds into the fleeing crowd. In another video a man explains to panicked, huddled concertgoers that the sound of gunshots came from a hacked sound system.

(I’m not linking this video because it’s being shared by conspiracy theorists who suggest it’s proof the attack was a hoax and WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!).

Terrorists attacked the Bataclan theater in Paris in November 2015, during a concert by the band Eagles of Death Metal. The lead singer (at left in the following video), a lifelong shooting enthusiast, immediately recognized the gunfire, overcame normalcy bias and ran for cover. His lead guitarist, on the other hand, assumed the gunfire was a malfunction in the sound system and stood motionless on stage for several seconds.

Another example of normalcy bias came from Marty LaVor, a photographer at the annual congressional baseball game which was attacked by an active shooter last June. LaVor saw the shooter just before the attack, and described his reaction this way:

“He picked up the rifle, and so I saw the rifle, and the thought that ran through my mind … because it was so out of context, why would anybody have a rifle there? And, what ran through my mind was, ‘Why would anybody be trying to shoot birds at six o’clock in the morning?’”

IN SUMMARY: Normalcy bias is the tendency, present in most of the population, to try to fit obvious signs of disaster into some routine and believable alternative explanation. It’s a momentary refusal to believe what you are seeing and hearing, because it’s so outside the scope of normal experience. Normalcy bias can delay your response to a lethal threat and can therefore be deadly if not overcome.

Question for the readers: Have you ever experienced normalcy bias? How and when? What have you done to overcome it?


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