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News Tip: Seeing Heroic Actions in Tragedy Helps Restore Sense of Safety, Expert Says

Psychol

Events like Boston Marathon bombings can cause feelings that such tragedies are more common than they are. Duke psychologist says they are "extraordinarily rare and we should not change how we go about our daily lives because of it."

Timothy StraumanProfessor of psychology and neuroscience, Duke Universitytjstraum@duke.eduhttp://psychandneuro.duke.edu/people?Gurl=%2Faas%2Fpn&Uil=tjstraum&subpa...

Strauman specializes in clinical and social psychology. His research interests include depression and anxiety, both in terms of treatment and prevention.

Quote:"Tragic and unexpected events like the Boston Marathon bombing have the effect of disrupting our individual and collective sense of security.

"Such events have two kinds of effects in particular that are important to understand. One is that when something like a bombing or shooting occurs, it leads us to feel that it is more common, and more likely, than it actually is. As terrible as the bombing was, it is still extraordinarily rare and we should not change how we go about our daily lives because of it. That also would be capitulating to the intentions of the perpetrators, which we as a people should always resist.

"The other is that our personal sense of safety is disrupted -- we are reminded that the world is never going to be a completely safe and benign place. Fortunately, what helps us to regain a reasonable sense of safety is when we see the heroic actions of first responders and bystanders in such an event. We know that even if we were to be involved in such an unpredictable event, our fellow citizens would respond with extraordinary courage -- just as we would if we were the bystanders.

"So in the immediate aftermath of this event, we will feel disrupted and disoriented and disturbed. But we also know that we will continue to survive and thrive as a community and that we will not let our way of life be fundamentally altered."

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Duke experts on a variety of other topics can be found at http://newsoffice.duke.edu/resources-media/faculty-experts. 

 

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