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  • Chapter 8 - Myths About Disasters

  • from Section 1 - The Nature and Impacts of Twenty-First-Century Healthcare Emergencies
  • Edited by Richard Williams, University of South Wales, Verity Kemp, Independent Health Emergency Planning Consultant, Keith Porter, University of Birmingham, Tim Healing, Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London, John Drury, University of Sussex
  • Book:
    Major Incidents, Pandemics and Mental Health
    Published online:
    11 January 2024
    Print publication:
    01 February 2024, pp 36-41

  • Summary

    Disasters are much misunderstood events, with misassumptions being common currency in popular culture, mass media, and even professional walks of life. We term these the myths of disasters for convenience. Rather than absolute errors of perception, they represent statistical generalisations about what is unlikely to happen in calamity. That people panic is perhaps the most common and enduring myth of all. Panic is a transient phenomenon that occurs only in specific circumstances. Looting, a measure of the breakdown of social order, is also uncommon, although it may occur where preconditions for it exist. Like other misconceptions, these myths fit easily into the ‘Hollywood model’ derived from highly stylised disaster movies. This model is countered by the therapeutic community that sociologists have found in post-disaster settings. Better education and more responsible reporting could do much to reduce beliefs in inaccurate portrayals of the phenomenon.