“In situations of extreme danger, some people enter a mental state that is known as the normalcy bias. In this state, people deny that what is happening to them is really taking place.
The normalcy bias is often experienced when people have never had a situation happen to them before. They use the fact that an event has never happened to justify their belief that it will never happen.”
This explains why, in emergencies, we rarely take immediate action. There’s this feeling of unreality, momentary confusion, and disbelief. It’s so outside our daily experience that it’s as if our brain is trying to make up a story that matches what we’re seeing. Hence the lag…
We don’t see it all the time because most humans are not commonly in life and death emergencies – but we’ve all read or heard about it. If you’ve ever witnessed a car accident you know what I mean. There’s a surreal disconnect between between what we are seeing and our reality.
So what we have here is yet another reason to constantly question our mind’s interpretation of what it thinks is reality – and not be afraid to act if we’re not sure.
Better safe than sorry.