GIGO about social behavior

Lee ClarkeSociology Department

Rutgers Universityhttp://leeclarke.com

Leadership and bioterrorism

Disaster Myths

• People will automatically follow leaders

• Need only one spokesperson, with single message

• Must worry about the “cry wolf” problem

• Police, etc. are “first responders”

• People can’t handle bad news

• Panic

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Thank you for flying Mandarin Airlines. As we taxi to the runway, please make yourself comfortable…and those of you sitting on the right side of the plane, please look to your LEFT!

Other bio-events• 1793 yellow fever in Philadelphia• 1918 Spanish flu• 1984 Rajneesh cult attack• 1932-1945 Japanese attacks on China

Exceptions: refusals to quarantine(?), burning down AIDS houses, 1894 Milwaukee smallpox outbreak

Not failing gracefully: Tacoma Narrows

Rhode Island nightclub, 2.20.03

CNN: “Panic inside club as tragedy unfolds”

Examples of elite panic• “There’s a greater risk of dying on the highway than

from exposure to anthrax” – bioweapons expert

• “I can honestly say there are zero persons that we believe are a high potential for anthrax” – FL DOH official

• “Isolated” incident; “cruel coincidence” – FL Gov.

• “There’s no reason to think that this incident is anything other than what we have seen in the United States over recent years” – FL Lt. Gov.

• “People should not go out of their way and do anything other than what they’re doing” – Sec of HHS

Modeling official behavior

• Ignorance

• Arrogance

• Hubris

• Officials can cause “panic”