I think that there is also a "normalcy bias" (can't recall the exact name) at play in such scenarios. We try to maintain an illusion of normalcy in emergency situations, even when those are life-threatening. Survivors of some of the worst plane disasters can recall that many of the victims simply sat frozen in place when all they had to do was get up and find a way off of a burning plane. It's as if their minds were trying desperately to pretend that everything was alright, and it paralyzed them into inaction. Estimates are that as many as 85% of people will fall into both normalcy bias and the bystander effect. Which is scary if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need help. And maybe that's what we need to remember. Fighting such mental quirks might mean that we're the ones who get saved the next time there's an emergency.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
