Post on 20-Dec-2015
GIGO about social behavior
Lee ClarkeSociology Department
Rutgers Universityhttp://leeclarke.com
Leadership and bioterrorism
Disaster Myths
• People will automatically follow leaders
• Need only one spokesperson, with single message
• Must worry about the “cry wolf” problem
• Police, etc. are “first responders”
• People can’t handle bad news
• Panic
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Thank you for flying Mandarin Airlines. As we taxi to the runway, please make yourself comfortable…and those of you sitting on the right side of the plane, please look to your LEFT!
Other bio-events• 1793 yellow fever in Philadelphia• 1918 Spanish flu• 1984 Rajneesh cult attack• 1932-1945 Japanese attacks on China
Exceptions: refusals to quarantine(?), burning down AIDS houses, 1894 Milwaukee smallpox outbreak
Not failing gracefully: Tacoma Narrows
Rhode Island nightclub, 2.20.03
CNN: “Panic inside club as tragedy unfolds”
Examples of elite panic• “There’s a greater risk of dying on the highway than
from exposure to anthrax” – bioweapons expert
• “I can honestly say there are zero persons that we believe are a high potential for anthrax” – FL DOH official
• “Isolated” incident; “cruel coincidence” – FL Gov.
• “There’s no reason to think that this incident is anything other than what we have seen in the United States over recent years” – FL Lt. Gov.
• “People should not go out of their way and do anything other than what they’re doing” – Sec of HHS
Modeling official behavior
• Ignorance
• Arrogance
• Hubris
• Officials can cause “panic”