> >From: Michael Wiik <mwiik@messagenet.com>
>
> >The attack has already made air travel safer. People on a plane that has
> >been hijacked must now and forevermore assume the plane will be used as
> >a cruise missile. No more 'stay calm and you wont get hurt'. This should
> >highly incentivize the passengers to rush the hijackers.
Actually, the diffusion of responsibility phenomenon in psychology might
still prevent this. Even in a situation where they know they will be
killed, large majority of people still remain frighteningly docile.
Perhaps it is a calculation like this: "If I rush him, there is 90%
chance I will be killed, while if I wait and somebody else does it first
(which is likely, since there are many other people here, let's say 50%
chance) then I will survive. So the likeliehood of survival is *higher*
if I do nothing!". Which is of course entirely wrong, since everybody
thinks like this.
But even knowing about this phenomenon doesn't mean you can easily
overcome it. It is a frighteningly strong inhibition, due to a somewhat
simplistic brain.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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