Elliot's Reviews > The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why

A fascinating look into how people react in disasters and crises. If you've never lived through a disaster or crisis of this kind and would like to prepare yourself to understand what might happen and how you and others might react I recommend this book highly. If you have lived through things like this and know how you react, then this is a fascinating look into why that might be and how others around you might react and why.

Unfortunately in my life I've had a handful of situations where horrible things happened around me that gave me the opportunity to learn how I react, and while I'm happy that my automatic reactions in those situations was extremely fast and productive (and indeed saved at least one life), they also showed me how many other people react in completely counter-intuitive and even counter-productive ways. This book makes those reactions seem more understandable, and gave me insights into how it might be possible to get those kinds of people to be more helpful in the future. Having the right reactions in disasters and crises, during intense pressure and stress, saves lives. Reading this book might just save yours or that of someone near you.

I was slightly horrified by how many times my reaction to the author's rhetorical questions that were meant to show how counter-intuitive people act actually showed how brutally logic-based I am. Things like "how much time do you spend worrying about X compared to Y or Z" when in X is supposed to be something people find scary and worry about, while Y or Z kill or injure far more people. I don't worry about X, and am very careful about Y and Z.