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The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

Amanda Ripley (Goodreads Author)

4.14 · Rating details · 4,353 Ratings · 755 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 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. ...more

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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 liked it

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

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Jun 15, 2008 Alisa Kester rated it it was amazing

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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Feb 17, 2016 Mizuki rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, pretty-good

This book tells you many useful things about survival, human's mind and disasters, and I really enjoy the author's sense of humor as well. Informative, educational and effectively written. We need more non-fictional books like this.

PS: I really like how scientists are having all the fun when they run their experiments: (1) getting people to jump from building (with safety neat beneath) and (2) getting people to swim through a mazelike swimming pool, so they can analyze how human's brain would wo ...more

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Oct 24, 2015 Corinne Edwards rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015, non-fiction, tragedy, science, psychology, survival, 9-11, disasters, natural-disaster, emergency-preparedness

I am, admittedly, very interested in disasters and their aftermath. I have been ever since I was a girl - I remember reading about The Titanic with fascination. I was obsessed with Pompeii for a while. Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, all of it. Maybe it's because when I was young my town flooded for several days, our basement filling with water and my dad away all day filling sandbags as the streets flowed like a river. I don't know. But I've always had a healthy fear of and fascination with what ...more

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Sep 27, 2016 Atila Iamarino rated it really liked it

Shelves: desastres, comportamento

Uma boa leitura sobre comportamento humano e desastres. Como nos acostumamos com saídas de incêndio, alarmes e outras coisas durante a rotina, de maneira que são esquecidos durante um desastre. O que leva as pessoas a negarem o perigo e as etapas entre reconhecer e aceitar uma situação perigosa, com mais conteúdo sobre cognição e a pesquisa de Thinking, Fast and Slow (que vejo cada vez mais em todo tipo de livro). E uma parte sobre como as pessoas reagem ao desastre, seja paralisando ou agindo c ...more

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May 29, 2013 David Tendo rated it it was ok

Kinda disappointed to be honest. I mean, it is an engaging read and the her writing style is very readable, which is why I'm so frustrated with how mediocre the actual content was. I think my expectations were misled by the subtitle on the cover - "Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why". From the subtitle I was expecting an eye-opening, thought-provoking book based on scientific studies and statistical research similar to Freakonomics and The Tipping Point etc, but what we got were psycholo ...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Jeff Walden rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: survival, psychology, disaster, stress, fear

Ever wondered how you'd act if you suddenly found yourself in a disaster? This book might get you started thinking more precisely about how you'd act. It's not academic research (although Ripley frequently refers to it and consults experts, providing sources in end notes), but it's a decent survey of how people respond to disasters. It's peppered throughout with stories derived from interviews, news articles, and so on, giving it a nicely human feel.

Ripley organizes her book, and attacks the top Ever wondered how you'd act if you suddenly found yourself in a disaster? This book might get you started thinking more precisely about how you'd act. It's not academic research (although Ripley frequently refers to it and consults experts, providing sources in end notes), but it's a decent survey of how people respond to disasters. It's peppered throughout with stories derived from interviews, news articles, and so on, giving it a nicely human feel.

Ripley organizes her book, and attacks the topic, in three parts.

First she considers the initial response to a disaster: to deny its reality. She examines two varieties of denial: first, to delay in responding intelligently, or in truly coming to terms with what has happened; and second, in improperly evaluating risks before a disaster and while determining how to react during one.

Second she considers the second stage of responding: deciding what to do. She examines fear, how it affects action, and how people deal with it. Next she considers resilience: what makes people better able to deal with extreme situations and stress.

Third she considers the last stage: acting. She breaks this down into three varieties: panicking, becoming paralyzed by fear, and being a hero.

What are the ultimate conclusions? To a fair extent, they're common sense. Be prepared. Mentally plan out escape routes and contingency plans so that if something happens, you'll already know some of what to do. Practice your responses, making them second nature, so that you'll carry them out instinctively. Yet even still, some of it really is genetic (like the correlation between resilience and the size of one's amygdala). So the conclusions are about what you might expect, although it's not completely common sense. (For example, panicking as a response occurs much less frequently than simple paralysis.)

And there's more to the conclusions than common sense, or mistaken intuition, for sometimes there are occasional particularly perceptive observations. For example, the author perceptively notes the distrust that exists between those disaster victims (or would-be victims) and authorities (particularly in a democratic society), in both directions -- for example, the people who didn't believe warnings in advance of Hurricane Katrina to evacuate, or the officials who think that explaining the true extent of a danger will lead to a panic. (Or -- and Ripley didn't come up with this, although I'd be surprised if it never crossed her mind -- the fear among some politicians that in the midst of a mass shooting, having anyone but police carrying guns would inexorably lead to stray bullets and even greater injury, as the law-abiding carriers panicked.) She notes that to properly respect people, effective warnings must tell them why in addition to what, using airline safety instructions for putting on oxygen masks as an example. (Quick: why should you put on your own mask before helping anyone else?) And there are a few more bits beyond this (the brief discussion of SIDS particularly stands out in my mind), including some humor: for example, the wry conclusion that sharks might rarely attack humans, but humans are winning the war against sharks.

This isn't the deepest book around, but it's plenty entertaining. The anecdotes keep things moving along. And ultimately, simply being forced to consider all the issues the book raises will make you more prepared, should anything actually happen to you. A good read, if not one I'm likely to consult again more than sparingly. Three and a half stars, which I'll round to three for this book's being to a large extent common sense. ...more

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Mar 30, 2016 Camilla Severns rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, catastrophe, non-fiction

This book was an amazing experience. I feel strengthened and prepared for any disaster that comes my way....well almost any disaster. This book has a great mix of psychology, disaster scenarios, personal stories, and scientific research. It makes me look at things in a new light. And it makes me want to be an emergency prepared nerd. Next time I go to a movie theater or get on a plane, I know I'll be checking for the emergency exits.

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Aug 13, 2010 Linda Redding rated it it was ok

A successful journalist, Ripley can really smith words.This piece reads fast and easily. Also, without a doubt she introduces some interesting concepts about behavior of human beings in seriously threatening situations. I just wish that her conclusions were drawn more from scientific data and less from anecdotes and memories of victims.

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Jan 19, 2018 Mike rated it really liked it

Interesting book. Highly recommended. You will never, ever get on a airplane, boat, stay in a hotel, go to a major entertainment event without reading, following and practicing safety and evacuation procedures. It is literally the difference between life and death.

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Feb 23, 2018 Bernie Gourley rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: those interested in who survives disasters.

Shelves: science-mind-body

Ripley investigates a range of disasters and tragedies – natural and man-made – with an eye toward her sub-titular question of who survives and why. Of course, in the process she answers the [often more interesting] converse question of who dies and why? By that I’m specifically referring to those who die while facing the same situations as survivors. i.e. Who dies having had the capacity to survive? Obviously, some people fail to survive because they face a fundamentally unsurvivable event (e.g Ripley investigates a range of disasters and tragedies – natural and man-made – with an eye toward her sub-titular question of who survives and why. Of course, in the process she answers the [often more interesting] converse question of who dies and why? By that I’m specifically referring to those who die while facing the same situations as survivors. i.e. Who dies having had the capacity to survive? Obviously, some people fail to survive because they face a fundamentally unsurvivable event (e.g. a plane explodes in mid-air with said person in it), but a surprising number die who could have walked to safety if they’d have managed to get moving – and some die because they play out a mental script that makes no sense contextually, e.g. trying to get a carry-on out of the overhead compartment as though one is at the gate at Heathrow Airport when in fact one is sinking into the ocean while the crashed airliner one is in is being buffeted by ocean waves.

Over the course of eight chapters, an introduction, a conclusion, and ancillary material, the author presents cases involving airplane crashes, tsunami, hurricanes, police shootings, hostage situations, fires, stampedes (of humans by humans), and even touches on the psychology of tragedies of a personal [rather than mass] nature (e.g. sexual assault.) A particular emphasis is given to events that the reader will likely be familiar such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, but the book also opens up the reader to events they may have scarcely heard of from the many crushing deaths in Mecca during recent Hajj pilgrimages to the Halifax harbor incident of 1917. Along the way, the reader hears from survivors, heroes, and a wide-range of experts on subjects such as gunfights, risk perception, evacuation dynamics, the physics of crowds, evolutionary psychology, and emotional resilience.

After an introduction that sets the context for the book, the first chapter discusses one of the most salient features of whether ones lives or dies, delay. The case of the evacuation of the World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, 2001 is used to examine why some people loiter about while others are johnny on the spot to hit the road. The WTC on 9/11 makes an interesting case because there were certainly people who died who could have survived if they’d had better knowledge or training. However, at the same time, it could have also been vastly worse if some of the people didn’t have the training they did (famously, a huge WTC tenant, Morgan Stanley, had a man in charge of emergency procedures, Rick Rescorla, whose persistent drills no doubt saved many lives [though he did not survive, himself.])

Chapter two discusses risk, and the weird way in which human beings perceive and respond to uncertainty. For example, the author describes Kahneman and Tversky’s Prospect Theory, which showed that a person responds to risk much differently if there’s a possibility of losing something rather than only of making gains. (Prior to work of these two social scientists, the prevailing view was that humans were rational actors, i.e. a $100 is a $100.) Prospect theory confirmed that anxiety mattered, and people didn’t just use their clockwork frontal cortex to calculate and compare expected values. (This may seem self-evident, but it began the process of up-ending the precise and predictable rational actor model from classical economics.)

Chapter three is entitled “fear” and it discusses that emotion and the various behaviors (and lack of behavior) that goes hand-in-hand with it, including: distortion of the experience of time, tunnel vision, and self-talk. (Panic and paralysis behaviors are each given their own chapter later in the book.) This chapter presented a fascinating discussion with a man who may have been involved in more shoot outs than any other police officer (the officer, no doubt, having a valuable perspective on how to respond in fearful situations.)

Chapter four is about the personality traits that link to resilience and the survivor personality. There is a fascinating discussion with an undercover agent in Israel, a man who faced a number of situations in which he had to coolly make a life-or-death decision in the way that most of us only experience in Hollywood movies. It should be pointed out that while we all admire such people when they save the day, the personality traits they display aren’t necessarily ones that we find desirable in daily life. Chapter five is entitled “groupthink” and it discusses the role that social dynamics play in survival, which is often considerable. Some survivors are people who would’ve perished if left to their own devices – i.e. if a more resilient stranger hadn’t taken them by the hand or shouted in their face.

The last three chapters discuss three relatively common behaviors that occur in the decisive moment of a tragedy. Chapter six discusses panic behavior. As it happens, there are some types of tragedies in which panic is almost unheard of and others in which it is nearly ubiquitous. Personality does play a role. Just as some people have personality traits that make them more resilient, others have traits that make them more likely to panic. However, researchers also found that there are characteristics – e.g. people feeling trapped but as if there’s a glimmer of hope of escape. [People who know they are unequivocally doomed are often surprisingly calm.] The chapter also offers some useful insights into how crowds kill people that may be useful for those who find themselves in massive crowds like those seen during pilgrimages or at any number of festivals in India (where human stampede deaths are disturbingly common.)

Chapter seven is about “paralysis” behavior. Readers may be familiar that there’s been a tendency of experts to add either one or two new “F’s” to the phrase “fight or flight” – such as “freeze” or “fright” – to describe other extremely common responses to severe sympathetic nervous system engagement. It’s common to dismiss such behavior as that of cowardly or milquetoast people, but the reality is more complex. On the evolutionary timescale, there was one tragedy that counted for an overwhelming percentage of such dire events -- being in the jaws of an apex predator. It turns out that if a grizzly bear or lioness is atop you, freezing isn’t a bad strategy. You aren’t going to pop up and out run a tiger or defeat it in unarmed combat, your only hope may be to make it think you are a diseased carcass – i.e. shit yourself and lie limply. One has to train alternative behaviors; otherwise, the body does what is evolutionarily programmed into its genetic code.

The last chapter is on heroic acts and why some people engage in them when most people don’t. (Consider the people in the Titanic lifeboats who listened to people struggle and drown for fear that their [almost empty] boat would be swamped with clawing victims. Or, the case of Catherine Genovese who was screaming bloody murder for half-an-hour while being raped and stabbed to death while none of the 40-ish witnesses so much as called the cops.) As with the question of what makes a survivor, the answer to what makes a hero is a mixed bag. While we tend to idolize people who engage in heroic actions, the evidence suggests that the image of pure beneficence – lacking all self-interest – may be mythical. Many a hero is as much responding with a combination of subconscious mind and genetic programming as is the individual who burns to death 100 feet from an unlocked exit – just to vastly greater adoration.

I found this book to be fascinating. There are many books on this topic, but I think the author did an excellent job of choosing cases and experts to produce an interesting and informative read -- even for a reader for whom this literature is not new.
...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Angela rated it it was amazing

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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Mar 27, 2009 Trudi rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, survive-this, 2009, 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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Sep 02, 2009 Ami rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: optimistic misanthropes, people with disaster-themed nightmares

Shelves: 52-books-in-52-weeks

Books about disasters don't get much better than this! The subject is fascinating--not the cause of disaster, not the cleanup afterwards, but the actual DURING, which the author calls the "survival arc". The book explores peoples' various reactions to emergencies, and the psychology & evolutionary theory behind them. Perhaps most importantly, the author explains which behaviors are most adaptive, and advocates that ordinary citizens (as opposed to just emergency management personnel or safet ...more

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Jul 12, 2013 Jacob rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, psychology, from_library

As a would-be hero I found this even better than I expected, and hard to put down. It would probably make a good companion to The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence as a book about how human instincts in an emergency can be either really helpful or really harmful, depending on the situation. In either case it's useful to know, such as how screaming and swearing (yes, the swearing is necessary too) is very good for bringing someone out of a panic so you can rescue them. ...more

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Apr 02, 2009 Shannon rated it it was amazing

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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Mar 26, 2009 Staci rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-time-favs, 2009

Ever had a book that keeps you up at night? One that provides starters for many conversations? One that you want to hand to everyone you live or work with and encourage them to finish it? One that makes you really want to stand up and take action? This book did all of those things for me.

Amanda Ripley did a fabulous job compiling disaster stories and presenting the reactions of multiple individuals.

I found myself reading passages to my husband and discussing how the people involved reacted diff ...more

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Jan 31, 2011 Trena rated it really liked it

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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Jan 29, 2015 E.J. Fisch rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, own-it

I read books like this for two reasons: 1) because I find concepts like this intriguing and useful from a personal standpoint, and 2) because it acts as research for my own writing. Parts of this book were certainly more interesting/helpful than others (I found the chapters on 9/11 and resilience most captivating), but all in all it was a thought-provoking read. I didn't feel like it really explained "why" any of the featured people survived -- it merely showed what they did. I would have liked ...more

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Oct 01, 2013 Ann Frost rated it it was amazing

A fascinating book about who survives in disasters. The short answer: those who are prepared. I will now pay attention to those airline safety briefings (and so should you!), especially noting the nearest exit. Also, if you are seated in the exit row, please don't pull up on your seat's arm rest thinking that it will open the emergency exit (as one woman did)- it won't and we'll all die.

Lots of good stuff about panic, freezing, and the behaviour of crowds. Illustrations from disasters we all kno ...more

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Jan 06, 2016 Lucy rated it did not like it

Shelves: nonfiction

Writing is good. Content is lacking. Only read this if you are interested in disaster case stories.

There is nothing really eye-opening about this. Be prepared, don't stay in denial, have strong family connections which will motivate you to persevere, etc, etc Also that huge pure chance factor (people don't like to accept it & will search for ways people have screwed up when something bad happens to them, because they don't want to believe that freak horrible events could just happen).

Google ...more

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May 18, 2012 Jo Ann rated it it was amazing

It was a fascinating look at what makes us tick, especially when disaster strikes. I liked reading about the physiological causes for our behavior, as brain chemistry has always fascinated me, but I also enjoyed examining the sociological aspects of our responses, as well. I had always operating on the misconception that panic was inevitable in these types of situations, but have learned that this type of behavior is far less common than I had previously thought. All in all, it was a strangely o ...more

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Sep 01, 2008 Kelly rated it it was amazing

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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Nov 09, 2016 Charles rated it really liked it

“The Unthinkable” is basically a self-improvement manual. But the promised self-improvement isn’t better organization, inner peace or higher task efficiency; rather it is increased odds of living through a disaster. And while the book accomplishes the goal of self-help for the attentive reader, even more it shows that who lives and who dies mostly results from characteristics of the individual. Many of these are innate and wholly unchangeable, such as sex, intelligence and ability to absorb stre ...more

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Sep 27, 2016 ☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡ϟ⚡⛈ ✺❂❤❣ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, knowledge, memorabilia, to-reread

Incredible. A textbook, basically, on all things scary. And an extremely illuminating one at that.

Q:
For all these reasons, perhaps, heroes feel a nonnegotiable duty to help others when they can. “It’s something in your heart, your soul, and your emotions that gets a hold of you and says, I gotta do something,” Oliner says. This finding agrees with the results of other (albeit scant) research into heroism. People who perform heroic acts are very often those who are “helpers” in everyday life, be ...more

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Apr 02, 2017 Victor Sonkin rated it really liked it

Shelves: 21st-century, american, anthropology, aviation, biology, civilization, cognitive, english-language, history, neuroscience

Not that it provides many answers — but considering the questions is an interesting and necessary task. The author deals with different types of disaster and different types of reaction, from active heroism to (one of the most interesting things, I think) complete loss of activity, similar to how Livingstone described his famous contact with the lion. Well-written and generally quite gripping.

The Halifax Explosion (Nova Scotia).
The Exploding Streets of Guadalajara.
Survivability of Airplane Accid ...more

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Jul 10, 2017 Gordon Larsen rated it really liked it

This had the feel of a Malcolm Gladwell book, easy to read and interesting. In fact, some of the research she cites on how people respond under stress may be the same stuff that Gladwell uses in "Blink." Some of that research seems especially relevant in diagnosing and fixing the police shootings of the past couple of years. Ripley (and if I recall, Gladwell) points out that within a certain range, an increased heart rate makes a person more efficient and focused, but beyond that range, the incr ...more

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Oct 24, 2014 Book rated it it was amazing

Shelves: neuroscience, social-science

The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why by Amanda Ripley

“The Unthinkable” is a captivating book that looks at what happens in the midst of disaster; it’s about the process of survival. Award-winning investigative journalist, Amanda Ripley combines a fascinating topic and engaging writing to produce a real gem. This enthralling 290-page book is broken out cleverly in three parts: 1. Denial, 2. Deliberation, and 3. The Decisive Moment.

Positives:
1. High-quality book. It’s well ...more

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Sep 08, 2017 David Quinn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Fast-paced and entertaining, reminiscent of a Psych 101 class.

The bulk of the book consists of stories of people doing something or nothing during a modern disaster. Ripley breaks down the behavior and provides the scientific explanation for the action or inaction. There is talk of the amygdala and the hippocampus, which I didn't love, that the author presents to give the stories a scientific foundation but the stars of the book are the stories themselves and Ripley's commentary. Her narration r ...more

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Jun 20, 2017 Hannah rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Honestly, this was a great book. Its title is more rhetorical than literal, though there are several conclusions made about the types of people who tend to survive disasters, and the types of situations that tend to be survivalable.

I was worried that this book would give me anxiety about all the horrible and unexpected ways I can perish, but it managed to do the opposite! Though I've been fortunate that I've never had to meet my "disaster personality" (the person you become in crises), I defini ...more

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About Amanda Ripley

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From the author's website:

Amanda Ripley is an investigative journalist for Time, The Atlantic and other magazines. She is the author, most recently, of The Smartest Kids in the World--and How They Got That Way, a New York Times bestseller. Her first book, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes--and Why, was published in 15 countries and turned into a PBS documentary.

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“The human brain works by identifying patterns. It uses information from the past to understand what is happening in the present and to anticipate the future. This strategy works elegantly in most situations. But we inevitably see patterns where they don’t exist. In other words, we are slow to recognize exceptions. There is also the peer-pressure factor. All of us have been in situations that looked ominous, and they almost always turn out to be innocuous. If we behave otherwise, we risk social embarrassment by overreacting. So we err on the side of underreacting.” — 3 likes

“Narrative is the beginning of recovery.” — 2 likes

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Preview — The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley

The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

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