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Like many Americans, I've spent hours watching and reading horrific news out of Haiti. As a cultural anthropologist whose subfields are popular media and disaster studies, I'm seeing impassioned pleas for charity, unfortunately accompanied by a familiar pattern of fear.
Broadcasters report assumptions without reflection: that disaster victims are powder kegs of violence. In fact, data from disasters all over the world compiled over a century have proven the opposite, that the primary human reaction to disaster is what anthropologists term "reciprocity" - mutual aid, sharing, community. Fact: Crime goes down in disasters.
Disaster researchers learned the lethal nature of false assumptions after Hurricane Katrina. When journalists reported rumor as fact, crying "mob violence" in New Orleans, search and rescue was halted and forces assigned exclusively to "control." Would-be rescuers were turned away.
Researchers at the University of Colorado Natural Hazards Center call this irrational fear of disaster victims "elite panic.'" It's far more common and more responsible for loss of life in disaster than mob panic.
Consider commentary accompanying scenes of shoving at a distribution site in Haiti, aired repeatedly on CNN. At first it was sensationally described as a violent outbreak with men shoving, children crushed (the kids shown looked fine). Later commentary matured to point out no one was hurt and there was only a little pushing. By Monday that same scene, highly edited, was being shown with more warnings of mass violence.
MSNBC's coverage has been at its worst with pieces by British affiliate ITV, which spent the weekend worrying over "the decaying social order." Scenes of children gleaning in rubble were shown. Peaceful kids are labeled "looters."
Reporters covering Katrina contritely realized they had been describing white survivors "gleaning necessary supplies," whereas black survivors doing it were "looters." Looting implies violent theft common in political unrest. But in disaster, you find not criminals but the most civic-minded survivors seeking supplies. Would a good man watch a child die - or crawl into a ruined pharmacy for medicine?
In an interview aired by CNN and MSNBC, Lt. Gen. Ken Keen discussed priorities - opening the seaport and getting fuel. When asked about security he said, "It is a concern." But then he noted that troops distributing aid "had no issues with security" all day. Yet news summaries of the interview emphasize security fears. Commentators briefly avoid panic rhetoric after interviews with retired Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, in charge of the troops that finally brought aid and rescue to New Orleans. Of Haiti, he explained, "just because they're poor doesn't mean they're dangerous." He said, "Search and rescue trump security."
CNN journalists almost figured it out Friday when Anderson Cooper's "ominous indications that people are preparing to get violent" alternated with his heart-felt denunciation of "stupid death" caused by aid delays. That night everyone got a reality check when doctors who had set up a surgical tent hospital were ordered out - for fear of violence. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta and crew stayed alone, perfectly safe, treating patients throughout the night. Mob violence wasn't threatening lives, elite panic was. The Cooper/Gupta analysis got even better Monday, when violence did break out. Their emphasis was on the localized and situation-specific nature of the violence and the general safety of other areas. They also connected aid delayed due to fear with the growing desperation.
Despite the disaster norms, in this case, we may have a self-fulfilling prophecy on our hands. Where hesitation leads to death, anything that inspires hesitation can kill. We've had tens of thousands of "stupid deaths."
