The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

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The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

by Amanda Ripley (Goodreads Author)

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 1,400 ratings · 396 reviews

It lurks in the corner of our imagination, almost beyond our ability to see it: the possibility that a tear in the fabric of life could open up without warning, upending a house, a skyscraper, or a civilization.

Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will...more It lurks in the corner of our imagination, almost beyond our ability to see it: the possibility that a tear in the fabric of life could open up without warning, upending a house, a skyscraper, or a civilization.

Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims? Will our upbringing, our gender, our personality–anything we’ve ever learned, thought, or dreamed of–ultimately matter?

Amanda Ripley, an award-winning journalist for Time magazine who has covered some of the most devastating disasters of our age, set out to discover what lies beyond fear and speculation. In this magnificent work of investigative journalism, Ripley retraces the human response to some of history’s epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917–one of the biggest explosions before the invention of the atomic bomb–to a plane crash in England in 1985 that mystified investigators for years, to the journeys of the 15,000 people who found their way out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Then, to understand the science behind the stories, Ripley turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts, formal and informal, from a Holocaust survivor who studies heroism to a master gunfighter who learned to overcome the effects of extreme fear.

Finally, Ripley steps into the dark corners of her own imagination, having her brain examined by military researchers and experiencing through realistic simulations what it might be like to survive a plane crash into the ocean or to escape a raging fire.

Ripley comes back with precious wisdom about the surprising humanity of crowds, the elegance of the brain’s fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain’s ability to do much, much better, with just a little help.

The Unthinkable escorts us into the bleakest regions of our nightmares, flicks on a flashlight, and takes a steady look around. Then it leads us home, smarter and stronger than we were before.(less)

Hardcover, 266 pages

Published June 10th 2008 by Crown Publishing Group (first published January 1st 2008)

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Dec 10, 2008 Brooks rated it 3 of 5 stars

Easy read on history of disaster planning. Good gut check on understand risk and how to respond. Starts with the Halifax Explosion in 1917 and explores 9/11, 1993 bombing, Sewer explosions of Guadalajara, and Katrina. Some of the interesting items. 1) Initial response in a disaster is always by neighbors or self rescue, so be prepared 2) Understand risk of activities – don’t watch the news (references Taleb above), so Heart Attack, Cancer, Stroke, Car accident. A study showed an additional 2000...more Easy read on history of disaster planning. Good gut check on understand risk and how to respond. Starts with the Halifax Explosion in 1917 and explores 9/11, 1993 bombing, Sewer explosions of Guadalajara, and Katrina. Some of the interesting items. 1) Initial response in a disaster is always by neighbors or self rescue, so be prepared 2) Understand risk of activities – don’t watch the news (references Taleb above), so Heart Attack, Cancer, Stroke, Car accident. A study showed an additional 2000 road deaths due to the decrease in air travel after 9/11. So, based on that we should all start our day with 20 minutes of meditation and a bowl of Oatmeal. 3) Very good information on fear. During a crisis, more people go catatonic than panic. Use profanity and scream to get people to move. For an individual, military training helps (make a plan, execute the plan) or just quickly think about why you need to live. Also, during a crisis most people lose track of time or can have tunnel vision or total vision loss. Hero’s tend to be unmarried males without children (the rest of us need to save our necks for our progeny). Very interesting story on Rick Rescorla, Director of Security for Morgan Stanley in the World Trade Center. After the fiasco of the 1993 bombing, he gave up on the port authority for disaster planning. He had actual, annual fire drills unlike the rest of the world trade center. He was ridiculed by the organization (this was a bunch of rich investment bankers). But 8 years later, he was vindicated when he got out 2800 employees of Morgan Stanley alive. Only 14 died which included himself and 4 of his guards. Take aways – now the relative risk of disasters in your area; practice fire drills; follow tornado, flood, and hurricane warnings; count the seats to an exit in a plane; take the stairs out of a hotel after checking in; take defensive driving seriously; Meditate (not just for heart health, but to calm in a disaster). (less)

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Apr 02, 2012 Trena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ripley systematically examines how humans respond to disaster, be it the Twin Towers on 9/11, a fire in a nightclub, or a plane crash. She incorporates neuroscience, psychological research, and extensive interviews with survivors to examine the phases of processing and the variety of responses to disaster.

It's not really meant to be a primer on how to train yourself to survive, but the biggest takeaway is practice, practice, practice. Plane crash survivors are likely to have flipped through the...more

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Feb 13, 2009 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Worth your time if you have any interest in these types of things. Results of a lot of research on who survives disasters and why.

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Jun 19, 2008 Alisa rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone & everyone

Shelves: non-fiction

Everyone should read this book! Besides being filled with utterly fascinating tales of how different people react during disasters (did you know panic is actually an extremely rare response?) it gives very helpful ideas/plans for how to prepare yourself mentally for being involved in one. This is the type of book you're always reading bits aloud to whoever happens to be in the room; I cannot stress how terrific and interesting it is...just knowing the most common reasons people die in disasters...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Lesli rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is fascinating. Its about the different human reactions to disasters. Why we do the different things we do during tragedies, what evolutionary traits service us well, and what ones create more harm now that society has progressed. This book infuriating me when it discussed how public works plans for disasters. I think that is the point if more people knew how organizations ridiculously plan for disasters we would all be outraged. Officials have so little faith in the average person. Th...more This book is fascinating. Its about the different human reactions to disasters. Why we do the different things we do during tragedies, what evolutionary traits service us well, and what ones create more harm now that society has progressed. This book infuriating me when it discussed how public works plans for disasters. I think that is the point if more people knew how organizations ridiculously plan for disasters we would all be outraged. Officials have so little faith in the average person. They often plan complicated methods that make no sense, think the color warnings for terrorist threats. When in actuality, simple planning which teach all people what to do and how to train are the most effective. The average person and average group is capable of surviving almost anything as long as they have practice. The only group that actually accomplishes this is school children in fire drills.
Here are the quotes I like,
"Once we factor in emotion, then, the human risk equation is actually more sophisticated, not less. Damasio's discoveries convinced me that the way for people to get better at judging risk is not to avoid emotion-- or wish it away-- but to capitalize upon it. Dread, properly tapped, can save our lives." p.42
"This curious sense of aloofness, call 'dissociation,' can feel subtle. [...] At its most extreme, dissociation can take the form of an out-of-body experience That's when people describe feeling as if they were watching themselves from above. [...] Extreme dissociation seems to be the brain's last line of defense, and its particularly common among victims of childhood sexual abuse. 'It's a way to survive,' says Hanoch Yerushalmi, an Israeli psychologist.. 'People are saying, 'You have my body but you don't have my soul." p. 61
"The brain is built to focus on one thing at a time, whether in a traffic jam or during an emergency landing. We have built technology for multitasking, but the brain has not changed." p. 75
Survival of disasters is mostly about money. "People need roofs, roads, and health care before quibbles like personality and risk perception count for much. ...for those who survive, money is a form of liquid resilience: it can bring treatment, stability, and recovery." p.90
Often victims have three responses. "One would laugh it off. Another would be enraged. Still another would be emotionally traumatized."
"Resilience is a precious skill. People who have it tend to also have three underlying advantages: a belief that they can influence life events; a tendency to find meaningful purpose in life's turmoil; and a conviction that they can learn from both positive and negative experiences. These beliefs act as a sort of buffer, cushioning the blow of any given disaster. Dangers seems more manageable to these people, and they perform better as a result. p.91
"Contrary to popular expectations, this is what happens in a real disaster. Civilization holds. People move in groups whenever they can. They are usually far more polite than they are normally. They look out for one another, and they maintain hierarchies. 'People die the same way they live,' notes disaster sociologist Lee Clarke, 'with friends, loved ones, and colleagues in communities.'" p.110
The story "The Making of a Gunfighter, on pages 67-70 was also fascinating.
Also the book mentioned that women are more liking to report injuries in disasters. It has nothing to do with physical strength, it has to do with poor foot wear. Survivors of the 9-11 reported tripping on discarded high heals, left in the stairwells. When I told my husband this, he told me that he recently read something that suggested women keep an old pair of tennis shoes in their car because rarely are women wearing shoes that they could walk a few miles in.
Also it turns out even when told to leave everything and evacuated immediately humans naturally wander around trying to bring items with them, even if the items are worthless. Unless trained to do so human do not leave immediately. They go through a period of denial. Humans also move like water when evacuating, they do not move like a simple equation.
This book made me wonder how I would react and how my husband would react. I drew on my previous experiences, which weren't many or that traumatic. Experiences like falling out of a car when I was 6 or 7, being lost with two other children in the forest when I was 8. Being in a car accident, and witnessing the driver's flight or fight response, of trying to walk the last 3 miles to make it to an appointment on time. When siblings were in accidents and my response. My neighbors in college setting off the fire alarm at 2 am. My illogical thought process while in labor before each of my children were born, all give me clues on how I would responded, at least I think. Or the fire this past summer in which we prepared to evacuate in case the fire jumped to our mountain.
Also the book discussed that the secret to remaining calm is relaxed breathing, the breathing you learn in stress relief or Lamaze. (less)

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Sep 22, 2012 Monica! rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, badass-book-club, no-dragons-so-it-must-be-true, ive-learned-something-today, iceberg-right-ahead, dammit-author-stop-being-awesome, your-reality-alarms-me, now-youve-read-the-book

I don’t know if it was the author’s intention, given that her book is about disaster preparedness and how we can train ourselves to survive pretty much any scenario, but I spent all 266 pages going Dear God. Dear God. Please do not let me end up in a disaster. Please, please please. Please.

I am not going to be good in any sort of awful situation. I’m not the sort of person who can break my own foot in order to escape a sinking plane, or who can cut through my own arm nerve by shrieking nerve in...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Angela rated it 5 of 5 stars

Disaster Personality… Who knew?! As it turns out, we all have one. Even folks we don’t believe to have any personality at all! My attempt at humor aside, Amanda Ripley examines human behavior before, during, and after disasters. As the reader I found myself examining my own disaster personality. And, more than just picking apart behavior in disasters Ripley believes that by examining disasters and planning for them through the lens of human behavior, we can do better as individuals, as a society...more

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May 22, 2012 Liz rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fave-non-fiction

Great non-fiction book. Anyone interested in the psychology of disasters would enjoy this book. Even people interested in the psychology of groups would like this. The author does plenty of research and even uses herself as a guinea pig in some cases!

Looks at how people reacted on 9/11 and other well known disasters (Katrina, Tsunamis) and terrorist acts (hostage takers). The author speaks to survivors of these events and in some cases, speaks to the architects of these events. She asks lots of...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Charlene rated it 5 of 5 stars

The perspective of Amanda Ripley is one of a senior writer for Time magazine. Ripley is a woman who covers risk and homeland security issues. She writes about human behavior as well as public policy. “The Unthinkable Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why” is considered to be the first major book to address just how the brain works in times of disasters. It can be considered a text on how we can learn to be better prepared to do better.

This book uses real, contemporary disasters such as the...more The perspective of Amanda Ripley is one of a senior writer for Time magazine. Ripley is a woman who covers risk and homeland security issues. She writes about human behavior as well as public policy. “The Unthinkable Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why” is considered to be the first major book to address just how the brain works in times of disasters. It can be considered a text on how we can learn to be better prepared to do better.

This book uses real, contemporary disasters such as the Twin Towers, Hurricane Katrina, the hostage crisis, the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire and the Virginia Tech massacre and its survivors who are employees, students, parents, public figures and even a bride who tell their stories. In all of the vignettes, these people are the rescuers, the leaders, and they are the helpers. By combining their stories and research on just how the brain works light is shed on some grim moments in time.

So many questions are asked in this journey into the complex brain: why do some people freeze? Why do some people experience tunnel blindness while others have heightened senses? Just how does the fear factor work? Is there really luck involved in crisis situations? What is the mathematics and science behind the calamities of crowds? Why do some people lead and why is following important for the masses?

The relevancy to this Crisis Intervention course and the book, “The Unthinkable Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why” underscores several identifiable and recognizable stages when faced with a life crisis or a “mortal peril” - an initial suspension of belief, a procrastination or “milling around” period, a disassociation, freezing and denial. And then, author Ripley points to that “decisive moment” when the person, the survivor snaps into action.

In its simplest form, this book underscores the core concept of crisis; there is an event (in the case of the book it is a disaster like the Beverly Hills Club fire or a stampede on holy ground in 1990 at the hajj), one’s perception of the event (denial, for example, ‘this is not happening to me’) and ultimately how does a person deal with the situation or is there an inability to function.

Additionally, this book describes anecdotally individuals whose ego coping mechanisms of defense, denial and disassociation were necessary to ultimately survive, and do so stronger and healthier as a result of the crisis.

Finally, the book addresses resources people utilized in their situations based on physical health, genetics, education levels and previous experiences.

This is a book I would not have read under “normal” circumstances. Frankly, I was seeking out a book to enhance my Crisis Intervention class experience and fulfill an extra credit requirement. Simply, I entered the words, crisis intervention in the library search criteria and what resulted were roughly 20 books on the topic; this one weighed in somewhere in the middle and the word unthinkable was the attraction.

Having said that, my eyes raced while my heart rapidly paced through the nearly 200 pages in one Sunday afternoon sitting. Topics of survival, courage, fear and panic in the context of disasters all too memorable in my lifetime were real, vivid and clear to me. Many of these life-altering events I wrestle with today with questions of why and how and when and not again. Whether it is the World Trade Center or Hurricane Katrina, we know the truisms that some people died, others survived. These catastrophic events were life changing and where some people coped and others panicked.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. Whether is serves as a mechanism for one’s personal journey into understanding reactions to powerful events in life or history or from a more scientific standpoint of mere case studies, this book may be a tool to better prepare you for a unexpected situation you just may find yourself in someday.
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Mar 09, 2012 Barney rated it 5 of 5 stars

This ranks as one of the most fascinating books that I have ever read. Amanda Ripley takes the question of why certain people survive disasters and spins it into a discussion of human nature, genetics, relationships and socialization. The disasters stretch from plane crashes, 9/11, the Virginia Tech shootings and the Halifax explosion of 1916 to such mundane things as traffic accidents and people shouting in a supermarket.

As it turns out, you should take all of those fire drills, earthquake dri...more This ranks as one of the most fascinating books that I have ever read. Amanda Ripley takes the question of why certain people survive disasters and spins it into a discussion of human nature, genetics, relationships and socialization. The disasters stretch from plane crashes, 9/11, the Virginia Tech shootings and the Halifax explosion of 1916 to such mundane things as traffic accidents and people shouting in a supermarket.

As it turns out, you should take all of those fire drills, earthquake drills and airplane safety lectures seriously. The biggest thing to take away from this book is that most people in a disaster don't freak out. One of Ripley's chapters focuses on a busboy who worked at the Beverly Hills Supper Club outside of Cincinnati. On May 28, 1977 the building burned to the ground, killing 177 people. Ripley points out that "most people were more friendly during the evacuation", even while they were trapped by locked doors. Ripley's statement that "civilization holds" is chilling, in that most people will simply freeze and wait to be told what to do in these situations. Hierarchy holds; in the supper club fire, a busboy led the way for several people because "he had no vested interest in the club."

Ripley also takes on why certain people tend to run toward danger. They tend to be male, single and have no children. In other words, this may be an evolutionary thing; the idea that people freeze certainly is an evolutionary thing. This was the most interesting and frightening part of the book. A million years ago, when our biggest threats were large animals who viewed us as food on the hoof, playing dead or going limp was perhaps our best defense. It would lower our threat; in some cases, lions would not eat us because they wanted fresh meat. This same response is deadly in a fire in a plane or a skyscraper, as it takes time. Ripley describes a survival arc and plots each of her witnesses and examples along the arc, making the book easy to follow and digest.

This is in the top five of the year and cannot be recommended enough. What would you do in a disaster? Read this book and get some idea about what you might do whether you want to or not. (less)

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Jul 01, 2011 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a great audiobook for my morning jogs. I may be morbid, but a book all about disaster striking was actually really riveting. And I thought it was really well-done, structurally. The book went through a lot of statistics but then in each case, asked "WHY do the numbers come out this way"? What is the story behind why people behave the way they do in disasters? And SO differently--people's reactions are really all across-the-board, and predictable in some ways but not others.

A lot of it i...more This was a great audiobook for my morning jogs. I may be morbid, but a book all about disaster striking was actually really riveting. And I thought it was really well-done, structurally. The book went through a lot of statistics but then in each case, asked "WHY do the numbers come out this way"? What is the story behind why people behave the way they do in disasters? And SO differently--people's reactions are really all across-the-board, and predictable in some ways but not others.

A lot of it is partially explained by biology and chemistry--the size of your amygdala in your brain, for example. Some of it is personality... arrogant people tend to do better in disasters. And some is evolution--for example, the reason some people just freeze and can't move in disasters (in situations where they clearly should be getting the hell out of dodge) is because if you were say, a gazelle getting eaten by a lion, playing dead might help because the lion might think you are sickly and therefore poisonous to him and not worth eating. So this ancient, desperate instinct built into our brains from eons ago might explain some seemingly nonsensical behaviors.

I loved the chapter on heroism because so much of it was not what I expected. It wasn't just a bunch of people saying "how else SHOULD I have behaved? I couldn't not try to save those poor people!!". She interviewed one of the people who jumped into the freezing Potomac to save plane crash survivors in DC in 1982, and his attitude was wonderfully refreshing. He has the same attitude about human beings I do: that we can be immensely flawed and irritating. He commented that "if this crash hadn't happened, I'd probably be honking my horn and cursing at these very same people that I am now risking my life to save." In other words, people are much nicer to each other during disasters than in normal life, for some reason. He also commented on how he thought that there was no true, pure altruism--that you are always getting something out of it or else you wouldn't do it (i.e. feeling like a hero later is a benefit, or doing it because you know you couldn't sleep at night later, so therefore it's somewhat of a selfish act).

Ultimately, here's the secret to improving your chances of surviving disasters--practice, practice, practice. There's a reason fire drills exist. You have to train your brain and body on what to do in an emergency because during a real emergency? Your brain will shut down and you will be like a deer in the headlights. Always look for your nearest exit on a plane, always look for the stairs when checking into a hotel, etc. This is what the survivors do!(less)

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Apr 19, 2011 Blair Andrews rated it 5 of 5 stars

Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims?

In her quest to answer these questions, Amanda Ripley, an award-winning writer on homeland security for Time, offers a compelling look at instinct and disaster response as she explores the psyc...more Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims?

In her quest to answer these questions, Amanda Ripley, an award-winning writer on homeland security for Time, offers a compelling look at instinct and disaster response as she explores the psychology of fear and how it can save or destroy us. Surprisingly, she reports, mass panic is rare, and an understanding of the dynamics of crowds can help prevent a stampede, while a well-trained crew can get passengers quickly but calmly off a crashed plane. Using interviews with survivors of hotel fires, hostage situations, plane crashes and, 9/11, Ripley takes readers through the three stages of reaction to calamity: disbelief, deliberation and action. The average person slows down, spending valuable minutes to gather belongings and check in with others. The human tendency to stay in groups can make evacuation take much longer than experts estimate. Official policy based on inaccurate assumptions can also put people in danger; even after 9/11, Ripley says, the requirement for evacuation drills on office buildings is inadequate. Ripley's in-depth look at the psychology of disaster response, alongside survivors' accounts, makes for gripping reading, sure to raise debate as well as our awareness of a life-and-death issue. 8 pages of color photos.

I learned so much from this book. For instance, when I check into hotels, I take the stairs to my room so I will already be familiar with the location of the nearest emergency exit. I also count the seats on an airplane as I go down the aisle, so I will be able to locate the exit in the likely event that I will be blinded by think black smoke should there be an emergency. I simply cannot emphasize how important it is to read this book. It changed my entire outlook on disasters and I feel much more empowered to deal with one should I be unlucky enough to find myself in the midst of a disaster.
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Mar 02, 2011 Jan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This is the second book I've read in recent memory about disaster survival, and by far it is the better and more memorable of the two.

I think the thing I like the most about Ripley's book is that it has such a strong foundation in disaster science and psychology. I rarely felt like she was tossing out speculation. A lot of study has gone into the hows and whys of disaster survival; I feel like this book does a good job of encapsulating a large portion of that study into relatively short, easy-to...more

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Nov 15, 2009 Steven Peterson rated it 4 of 5 stars

The author, Amanda Ripley, reports her reflections on how people respond to disaster--and how they can improve that response. Throughout the book, she refers to a variety of disasters and notes how people responded--whether well or not so well. Her approach (Page ix): "I started to research the stories of survivors from. . .disasters. The overlaps were startling. People in shipwrecks, plane crashes, and floodwaters all seemed to undergo a miraculous metamorphosis. They performed better in some w...more The author, Amanda Ripley, reports her reflections on how people respond to disaster--and how they can improve that response. Throughout the book, she refers to a variety of disasters and notes how people responded--whether well or not so well. Her approach (Page ix): "I started to research the stories of survivors from. . .disasters. The overlaps were startling. People in shipwrecks, plane crashes, and floodwaters all seemed to undergo a miraculous metamorphosis. They performed better in some ways and much worse in others. I wanted to know why." She concludes that people can prepared for how they might respond in disasters, and then she tries to provide examples as to how this can happen.

Her study leads her to see that there are three phases in every kind of disaster: denial, deliberation, and, finally, the decisive moment. In the process, she also speaks about panic, although she says that rather than panicking, most people (Page xvii) "tend to shut down entirely in disaster. . . ." To understand humans' responses to disaster, she integrates knowledge of the brain's operation into her analysis.

Denial? She uses examples from 9/11 at the World Trade Center and Hurricane Katrina to illustrate aspects of denial. For deliberation? One case study looks at a supper club fire in Beverly Hills. Finally, the decision point. Again, a series of examples are cited to illustrate.

The conclusion speaks to the value of thinking about how one might respond to a disaster. One simple example: a security official in the World Trade Center. He lived through the car bomb blast in the early 1990s. Having thought about how people responded to the near-disaster, he began to prepare for the next disaster (which, of course, was 9/11). He worked with employees of the firm for which he worked to get people to know exactly what they had to do at the moment of crisis. When the plane hit the tower, the people with whom he had worked already knew what to do, and there was minimum chaos and minimum injury. A powerful example. . .

A volume that reads well and gets one to thinking about how we might respond were there a disaster. A useful addition to the literature, aimed at a more general readership.
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Feb 13, 2009 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: psych

This book is pretty much what you would expect from the introduction and cover blurbs. The best part was the author creating an equation for dread: dread = uncontrollability + unfamiliarity + imaginability + suffering + scale of destruction + unfairness.

I wanted to read this not to be better prepared for disaster, but to simply see what happens in one. As Naipaul once put it "the world is what it is."

* * * *

From the introduction - "I started to research the stories of survivors from other di...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Kal Cobalt rated it 4 of 5 stars

An engaging and cohesive narrative of what happens in our minds and bodies when shockingly negative things happen. I read this as research for a novel I'm writing -- I had a decent grasp of PTSD and other trauma disorders from a clinical perspective, but was hoping for something to help me connect the dots between psychiatric treatises and actual human behaviors. This book fit the bill nicely. I made pretty hefty use of my Kindle's highlight feature on this one.

I recommend this to anyone interes...more

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Sep 01, 2008 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was absolutely fascinating. It has a lot to do with the behavior of disaster victims, which is a not well researched area. I particularly liked reading the accounts of survivors describing what it was like to live through these situations; how they never thought they'd act the way they did. There's a lot of interesting information about how your body physically changes when under threat, and how your "disaster personality" comes out. I couldn't put it down.

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Sep 09, 2011 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: survival, conversation-makers

Everyone's wondered: how would I react in a crisis? Ripley describes the different reactions people have and why freezing up might be just as evolutionarily advantageous as being a hero. Her main take-away is that citizens need to be prepared to take care of themselves instead of relying on some other authority to tell them what to do. She makes the very good point that in flight 93 and the 9/11 attacks, citizens were draftees in the war on terror. This isn't to say that we need to be panicked a...more

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Apr 26, 2011 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, science, psychology

If you were in a disaster, what would you do? How would you react? It might not be the way you think. Our disaster personalities can be quite different than the ones we expect to meet.

Filled with utterly fascinating tales of contemporary disasters and the people caught up in them, author Amanda Ripley reflects on the various ways people respond to disaster, what happens inside the brain physiologically, why some people fare much better than others, and how we all can improve our disaster respons...more

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Mar 31, 2009 Trudi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, survive-this, 2009-reads, man-vs-nature

Each of us can benefit from this sobering read about human behavior in the face of disaster. There are some real surprises, including how infrequently humans actually panic -- that panic, while it does exist, is not the normal reaction. When faced with overwhelming peril, most of us will become paralyzed and be very slow to act. We will mill about (like cattle), we will look to others, we will gather personal belongings, and most alarming of all, we will forget how to perform the simplest of tas...more

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May 06, 2013 Andy Kline rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a card carrying worry wart, this book was helpful.

Like Gavin de Becker’s book, “The Gift of Fear,” “The Unthinkable” provided a good perspective on what I should be really concerned about from a risk assessment perspective, as well as the uselessness of worry.
“The number of Americans killed by international terrorism in the past 50 years is less than the number killed by food allergies.”

Having experienced a certain amount of genuine trauma, I found the material on disassociation and other c...more

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May 13, 2012 Alison Whittington rated it 5 of 5 stars

Highly recommend to everyone (especially those people who think they would react well in a disaster, but really, everyone). Sure, this covers plane crashes and mass shootings and the World Trade Center attacks of both 1993 and 2001, but the behaviors studied also apply in the "little" disasters, like house fires. Every time I've faced a crisis situation, I've reacted calmly and coolly, but would I really know exactly what to do if woken from a deep slumber at 2:30 a.m. by our smoke alarms? I tho...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

As someone who visits denial regularly, I liked this book because it helped me realize that confronting your fears helps you overcome them. The author broke down different kinds of disaster responses into several chapters (denial, panic, paralysis...) and then explained why one would act that way. E.g. why would you sit passively as a plane burned around you? And in an amusing aside to that, flight attendants are apparently now trained to scream at people during a disaster ("MOVE IT!! MOVE IT!!"...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

You should put down the book you're reading right now and read this book because it could save your life, and maybe the lives of people you care for. In addition to that all-important reason, it is a fascinating read.

I don't read very long books like this -- I listen to the unabridged audio versions in my car and while walking for exercise. The audio version is excellent. Even if I did have the ability to sit down long enough to read for periods at a time :) I would prefer the audio version beca...more

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Mar 26, 2012 Ashley K rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of my new favorite non-fiction books. I was worried that the book would produce anxieties, since I sometimes fixate on disasters and have a feeling of dread about certain events possibly happening, but the "dread" factor came largely from not knowing how I and the people around me would likely respond to a disaster. Knowing the various ways that a person might respond makes me feel more prepared for if I ever find myself in that kind of situation.

I was disappointed to find that the w...more

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Jan 06, 2009 Kathleen Hagen added it

Shelves: 2008-audio-books, 2008-nonfiction

The Unthinkable: Who Survives Disasters, and Why? By Amanda Ripley, narrated by Kirsten Potter, produced by Random House Audio, downloaded from Audible.com.

Ripley, a well-known New York Times writer, decides to take on the question: who survives traumas, and do those survive have talents or characteristics that those who don’t survive don’t have? She looks at what is known about various disasters, including famous ones like 9/11, various famous plane crashes, ferryboat sinkings, famous restauran...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Neil Pierson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Amanda Ripley was a reporter for "Time" magazine. She often interviewed survivors of disasters, massacres, and other unthinkable events. She became curious: Why did the people she interviewed survive when many others lost their lives?

Does this sound like an interesting premise for a book? Damned right it does. Plane crashes, September 11, nightclub fires, hostage-taking, assaults... can't miss! But what is surprising is that there are some answers to the question of why some make it and some don...more

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Apr 11, 2009 Shannon rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a fantastic book! Despite the ominous cover, it was a positive look at human reactions to disasters. It took case studies from September 11, Katrina, fires, plane crashes, etc and went through fear, dread, panic, heroism, and other reactions. The book was facinating, presenting so many intruiging facets of human behavior and brain functions. Once you read some of them, you immediately want to hurry and find someone to tell about it or talk it over with. It got to the point that Michael woul...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Michele rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-of-2012

Very well done. This is March's book for our book group and I can just tell the discussion is going to be amazing. She gave me pause several times while reading.

42: Individuals underperceive risk.
So you don't have to die!

47:When people imagine good things happening to them, they become more prone to take risks.

I have always figured I would be a good one in a crisis, but after reading this book, I'm having second thoughts. One of the points she makes, is that most of us, think we will be better i...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Terri Light rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I'll admit that I have worried about disasters, accidents, and general acts of angry nature. Who hasn't, right? Terrorism. Who is not afraid to get caught in the crossfire? I laugh about the Zombie Apocalypse with my friends. But then something clicked. I live in a city, I travel by airplane, I have stayed in high-rise hotels...how exactly would I react in a real disaster? This book plunges you right through the nightmare and into the scenarios and the scientific studies of why and where those t...more

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About Amanda Ripley

From the author's website:

Amanda Ripley, a Time Magazine contributor, is an investigative journalist who writes about human behavior and public policy. Her first book, The Unthinkable, was the first major book to explain how the brain works in disasters — and how we can learn to do better. It was published in 15 countries and made into a PBS documentary. Her next book, Where the Smart Kids Are, a...more

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