What does road rage have to do with Hurricane Katrina? My
father’s experience with it provides the answer.
But first, you’ll have to meet my good ol’ dad.
He’s a mild-mannered civil engineer. He isn’t of the
thrill-seeking, risk-taking ilk. And there’s nothing wrong
with that.
It must have been only 5 a.m. in my hometown of Sunnyvale when
he drove off to work. Pitch-dark and cold, he didn’t notice
the only other car on the road until the driver rudely ““ or
perhaps accidentally ““ cut him off.
My father immediately switched lanes and slammed his foot on the
gas pedal. He quickly surpassed his enemy only to swerve in front
of him while furiously slamming down on the brakes. His rival
matched him play by play. My father, now driving under the
influence (of rage, that is) once again sped up in front of the
other driver and cut him off at an alarmingly close distance.
Anonymous Morning Commuter returned the offense.
A few stoplights and many rounds of unchecked egos later, the
race ended ““ but not without a menacing 30-second stare-down
between the two men.
Road rage is sadly a daily occurrence; in Los Angeles,
it’s probably a twice-a-second habit.
Somehow, the context created by driving changes people. It
changes us into over-aggressive, confrontational jerks. The
conditions of driving ““ being inside your own hardy and
private space, and having the capability to drive off and escape at
any moment, creates an environment in which your beastly actions
cannot be reprimanded by onlookers because vroom vroom and
you’re gone.
But before you decide that all commuters are prone to evil,
consider this: My father has never again been enraged on the road.
After his bout with the stranger, he’s learned to keep his
sanity in balance even when the situation feels overpowering.
There are other environments that also cast a powerful spell on
behavior. Consider the now-famous Stanford Prison Experiment.
Twenty-four college students who were of average health and
intelligence were picked to take the roles of prison guards and
prisoners for two weeks. The study aimed to emulate the experience
of prison life.
The experiment was abruptly ended after only six days. The
reason? “In only a few days, our guards became sadistic and
our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme
stress,” writes lead researcher Phil Zimbardo on the prison
experiment’s Web site. The students weren’t students
anymore. In their new environment, they took on their new roles
with fanaticism. Even Zimbardo confesses that at one point, he
stopped observing their behavior as an experimental social
psychologist, and instead became involved in the role of stopping
an escape.
If a prison simulation study can alter human behavior so
drastically, how many hundred times more powerful is the
environment created in the wake of a hurricane? There’s no
food. There’s no water. Your house is in ruins and you have
no protection. It’s water, water everywhere, and death is on
the brink.
Add in virtually no preparation and a shamefully slow federal
aid response, and the environment is ripe for looting, pillaging,
murder and anarchy, which is exactly what happened.
We all like to think we live in a steadfast bubble that is
resilient and preserving, but the truth is, an everyday occurrence
such as road rage or a natural disaster such as Hurricane Katrina
has the power to change the very nature of human
“nature.”
But there’s something else that has that power, too
““ knowledge.
UCLA Professor Matthew Lieberman knows this well.
When he taught at Harvard, Lieberman conducted an experiment on
one of his psychology classes. During lecture, he played a
recording of a woman screaming for help outside the classroom.
Everyone heard, but no one got up to help.
Lieberman later revealed the reason for the inaction: the
diffusion of responsibility effect. In a situation where there is
more than one person who can be held accountable, no one takes
responsibility. What happens is ironic ““ more potential
helpers, less chances of heroism. This social phenomenon is yet
another instance in which the environment causes people to act in a
certain way.
One week later, a woman drowning in Ithaca in a freezing lake
was saved by an undergraduate while several others did nothing. He
was not a superhero, or even a lifeguard. But he had attended
Lieberman’s lecture.
If the young man had not known about the effect, perhaps the
woman would have died. In his own explanation, the primary reason
for his heroism was the knowledge that no one was going to act.
Bad drivers, crises and natural disasters are beyond
anyone’s control. But understanding that behavior is largely
influenced by the environment gives us back the ability to govern
ourselves. Knowledge gives us the chance to rise to the occasion,
simply because we know better.
E-mail Tao at atao@media.ucla.edu.