Fight or Flight: An in-depth look at the human response
“Fight or Flight” is the phrase we use to describe a response when faced with a crisis like a mass shooting, a burning building, or another sudden disaster.
Recent shootings at the movie theater in Aurora, the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, the office building in San Bernadino, and the nightclub in Orlando have caused many to ask themselves “How would I respond?” in a situation like that.
“It’s crazy how life doesn’t tell you how you will react to a pressure situation until it puts you in that situation,” said Jerell Brooks, who faced that exact scenario four years ago.
On July 20, 2012, James Holmes began firing into the crowd at a midnight showing of Batman.
Brooks, 18 years old at the time, was sitting a few rows from the top and initally turned toward the exit, but then stopped after seeing a woman and two kids frozen in their seats.
“She turned around and looked at me, and I remember this more than anything else, she said ‘It’s just me and my two kids’, and at that point, I wasn’t really thinking,” said Brooks.
Dr. Lori Driscoll, an Associate Professor of Psychology at Colorado College, believe in a situation like that, it’s nearly impossible to process what’s happening.
“We’re not wired up to make complex decisions rapidly,” she said.
Instead, Driscoll believes our gut instinct takes over.
“When we are frightened by a traumatic event, by a catastrophe, what our body does is automatic,” said Driscoll.
Jarell’s automatic response was to selflessly help the family out of the theater, even though it meant taking a bullet in the leg himself.
When asked why he thought he stopped to save them, he responded, “It’s hard to say, because when it was happening, it seemed like so much was going on. And I feel like if I went back to think about it, it was moreso that I could either make a break for it and possibly get out, or I can make sure someone gets out.”
Driscoll suggests Brooks’s upbringing had something to do with it.
“He clearly had a value that had been instilled at some point earlier in his life either through thinking about protection as being a value, or the protection of others in these sorts of situations,” she explained.
Brooks grew up in a church household, with both a father and mother who were pastors, and admits his values likely gave him his selfless mentality.
Driscoll says values are just one tool your body can use to make a split second decision.
Prior experiences can also play a role, as well as practicing an imaginary crisis in your head when watching a movie or reading a book, as well as real world simulations that teach your brain.
“The difference that you see between people who act and don’t act is in large part due to the fact that they’ve thought about the situation before, or they’ve been trained, and that’s a memory that comes back for them,” she said.
Ironically, despite knowing how he responded at this theater nearly four years ago, even Brooks admits today that if the same situation happened to him again, he’s not sure what his mind or his gut would tell him to do a second time.
“I would love to say that I would be able to, but like I said, no one knows for sure,” he said.
Jarell admits that delaying his own escape might not have been the smart choice that night, but he believes it was the right choice, one he hopes he never has to make again.
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