|
The Life and Mind of DamnBlackHeart
This is to help me stay actively writing. So expect to see rants, tips on writing, thoughts on subjects, me complaining of boredom, reviews, anime, movies, video games, conventions, tv shows and whatever life throws at me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Human Behavior During the Zombie Apocalypse |
|
|
|
|
|
|
I’m fascinated with the psychology aspect of how humans behave in catastrophic times, such as in a zombie apocalypse. There are many theories and possibilities to consider, but there are plenty of past catastrophic events and disasters (including natural disasters and epidemics) that can serve as examples of what might happen in a zombie apocalypse and even those in fiction as well.
No matter what the disaster is, what they all have in common is that everything is thrown into chaos. For example: The September 11 attacks, which were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
The reason I mention this particular disaster is because I remember it. I remember how terrified my classmates were as we watched the news coverage in our classrooms. I remember how everyone used their cellphones to tried to reach their love ones, hoping that they were safe. I remember their terrified faces when no one was able to reach anyone because the communication system became overloaded. I remember how some wanted to leave immediately, but were convince to stay until the school release us early or when their parents came.
It was shocking really, to watch it all happen and not knowing how to feel or think about it. Everyone was so confuse and scared, not knowing why or what exactly was happening. It was even more worst, for those that had family members working in and around the World Trade Center.
Those thoughts and feelings are exactly what people in a zombies apocalypse will be going thorough. They will realize that cell phones will be useless because everyone will be trying to reach their loves ones. There will be news coverage if there’s plenty of incidents of “people” attacking other people. There will be people in denial, in shocked or don’t know what to make of hearing such news. Then it will get worst, because the attacks will increase. People will be confused and scared about why it’s happening and why it isn’t stopping. It will feel surreal, but once they’re in it — experiencing the attacks for themselves it’ll be shocking and hopefully it won’t get them killed.
Hurricane Katrina, one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States is another example of how chaotic it can get. Even til this day, if people went down to the areas that were hit the hardest, they can still see the lingering damage. That’s not surprising because 80% of the city and large tracts of neighboring parishes became flooded, and the floodwater lingered for weeks. Boats and casino barges rammed buildings, pushing cars and houses inland and the water reached 6–12 miles (10–19 km) from the beach.
I can’t even imagine what it felt like for the people that went through that. But what I’ve learned from it is that cellphones aren’t reliable at all and people had to find other means of communications. They had to survive without electricity or running water. Survive without their homes, without their love ones, without food and water. They had to rely on others for help, for the firefighters, national guards, police and FEMA to provided aid. It certainly wasn’t easily to regain peace and order because the flooding made it difficult. There was also violence, looting and some terrible people also took advantage of others.
Another example to look to is the Black Death or Bubonic Plague, a pandemic caused by a bacterium. It killed an estimated 75 million people, wiping out somewhere between 30 to 60 percent of Europe’s population. They didn’t have the modern technology, medicine and knowledge that we have today, but if they did they would have been able to prevent or lessen the death toll. As the bodies piled up it became more efficient to burn them, which inadvertently prevent the further spread of disease. They had to be extreme and if they suspected someone was sick or they were, they would have burn them alive by setting their home on fire.
What one should looked into is the lengths that European countries went to, to insure that they were safe from the plague, what areas were better off and why. It wouldn’t be surprising if in a zombie apocalypse that countries would tried to quarantine incidents or closed off their boarders to prevent the infected from reaching their population. They would certainly resort to burning bodies as that’s the safest way to dispose infected bodies and keep them from contaminating anything. They would most likely test everyone for symptoms and remove them from the rest of the population, probably even use lethal force to keep their boarders secure.
The paranoia would be a factor as well, people could be quick to assume a common cold is a sign of the zombie virus. It can led to unnecessary deaths because do panic. And for that reason many would try to escape if they’re sure they’ll be executed over a simple cold. Or what if they’re really are infected and by running they’re unintentionally spreading the infection. But because they’re scared and the rest of the population is just as scared, their paranoia can be their down fault.
Then there is the people outside the boarders trying to survive. They might believe that it’s safe inside just because the country was able to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. It might not that much better inside. And it really depends on what kind of zombie virus you’re dealing with.
Now, what if it all fails? What if there’s no one to enforce the laws? What if everything you knew was gone and you just have to adjust to the new world. How much should someone let go of the past and of their morals?How much should they embrace the new world? What about the children and those born into this new lawless world? How would they behave? What would their thoughts and reactions be like? How much different would it be from those that still remember how society was like?
The Last of Us, The Walking Dead and many other fiction, forces us to examine the extreme behavior humans are capable of under extreme circumstances. In an extremely stressful situation, people often do things they didn’t believe they were capable of in order to survive.
In the world of The Walking Dead, nearly everyone has endured losses and psychological trauma, but despite the ubiquity of trauma, not everyone becomes psychopaths. In reality, how well one copes with trauma is related to an individual’s resiliency: the process of positively adapting in the face of significant adversity. Studies have shown that certain factors promote adaptive coping to trauma, while other factors reduce the likelihood of such responses.
Factors that promote resiliency include: individual factors (e.g., high IQ, being in touch with one’s emotions, self-confidence, a sense of humor), relationships with good attachments, and supportive peers or social group. Indeed, being part of a high-quality social group during the zombie apocalypse not only offers security, power, affiliation, and opportunity for goal achievement (i.e., survival), but also serves as a buffer from maladaptive coping with trauma.
The human mind is an important aspect when writing zombie apocalypse stories. Remember, every person is different and they won’t handle things the same. Your character should reflect that as well, it will make them realistic.
Other similar reading materials:
Psychological Today - The Most Important Factor For Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse
One Of Us - Post-Apocalyptic Psychology: Children of the Apocalypse
Brain Knows Better - Killing Someone Doesn’t Make You Crazy in The Walking Dead’s Zombie Apocalypse
Psychcentral - Psychology & Pop Culture: The Walking Dead and Uncertainly
Psychology Today - The Moral Molasses of The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead Psychology 101
WIRED - Lawyers and Psychiatrists Answer the Tough Questions in The Walking Dead
The Guardian - Zombies, Cognitive Dissonance and You
The Chronosphere - Psychology of the Apocalypse
Wilderness Survival - Psychology of Survival
HowStuffWorks - Survival Psychology
Offgrid Survival - Psychology of Survival: How Your Mind Affects Your Ability to Survive
The Modern Survivor Magazine - Psychology Aspects of Survival
The Organic Prepper - He Who Hesitates is Lost: The Psychology of Survival
 DamnBlackHeart · Sat Nov 29, 2014 @ 08:44pm · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
