The Best Comes at the Worst Time.
What really happens when everything collapses.
The Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware is the world's first social science research center dedicated exclusively to disasters. Since 1963. Over 700 field studies. The result is always the same: humans in disaster are not egoists. They are helpers:
London Bombings 2005
Terrorist attack on the London Underground. The University of Sussex surveyed over 90 survivors and 56 witnesses afterward. What they found: self-centered behavior was rare. Mutual aid was the norm. People helped the injured instead of fleeing. In one of the worst moments imaginable, most people chose the other person.
Empirical evidence that self-preservation and willingness to help coexist in crises.
Source: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/028072700902700104 (Drury, Cocking, Reicher: "The Nature of Collective Resilience," 2009)
Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans 2005
News reports after Katrina suggested that the worst natural disaster had been immediately followed by a second, human-made one: uncontrolled crime and anarchy. These reports were false. The opposite was true. Historian Rebecca Solnit meticulously documented this: the greatest threat to the population did not come from the population. It came from authorities who reacted with force based on false assumptions about human behavior. The narrative of the evil human cost lives in New Orleans.
Source: Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell, Viking Press, 2009. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/reconstructing-story-storm-hurricane-katrina-five/
9/11, New York 2001 - Crime
After September 11th, crime in New York City temporarily dropped significantly. The city that never sleeps briefly became a different city. A better one.
Source: Rutger Bregman, Humankind, Rowohlt Verlag, 2020.
COVID Lockdown 2020
Millions of people sewed protective masks. Without being asked. Without pay. For hospitals, for the homeless, for neighbors. At the same time, billions of people kept their distance to protect others they would never meet. It was possibly the largest collective act of cooperation in human history.
Source: Rutger Bregman, Humankind: A Hopeful History, Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 2020.
Wenchuan Earthquake, China 2008
People in the devastated areas had lost everything. And then they donated more than anyone else. More time. More money. Total donation revenue in China tripled in 2008 to the equivalent of 15 billion US dollars. Loss makes people generous.
Source: https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1002250/the-destructive-earthquake-that-gave-chinas-charities-new-life / https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-016-1233-5
Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2004
To this day the largest wave of private donations following a disaster in history. Worldwide. Millions of people within hours. No event since has surpassed it.
Source: https://www.fts.unocha.org / UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Hurricane Ian, Florida 2022
Media reported looting. None of the surveyed households knew a neighbor who had been robbed. Almost all reported neighborly help. Always the same gap between reporting and reality.
Source: Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware. https://www.drc.udel.edu
Ahr Valley Flood, Germany 2021
No one had organized it. Within a few hours, thousands of volunteer helpers drove from all over Germany into the disaster area. Without a public call for help, with their own tools and vehicles.
Source: https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/2021-07/ahrtal-flut-freiwillige-helfer-solidaritaet
Valencia Floods, Spain 2024
The flood disaster in Valencia, which killed 236 people, triggered a wave of solidarity: hundreds of volunteers arrived on foot in the affected areas, carrying water, shovels, and brooms. The number of helpers was so large that authorities asked them to stop arriving by car, as they were blocking the roads for rescue workers. In total, around 15,000 people volunteered.
Source: https://de.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/11/02/nach-flutkatastrophe-welle-der-solidaritat-in-spanien / https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flutkatastrophe_in_Spanien_2024
The research has been clear for decades. And yet many authorities still plan around a worst-case image of humanity. They assume people lose their heads in disasters. That chaos follows.
The research says the opposite: people act reasonably, organize themselves, develop closeness that can become the most valuable resource in a crisis.
So where does this false image come from? The answer is uncomfortable.
The pattern is the same everywhere: media show chaos, research shows solidarity. Panic and looting are more dramatic than the quiet sharing of food with neighbors. The grim images sell better.
Compiled based on: Disaster Research Center (University of Delaware), Rutger Bregman, Humankind (Rowohlt 2020), Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell (Viking Press 2009), as well as linked individual sources.