ABSTRACT
The illusion of centrality is the more extreme where it is believed that the damage is concentrated exclusively on the spot where one happens to be. A number of factors probably contribute to this illusion of centrality. The large scale event, though nominally recognized, may be assimilated to the model of more familiar circumscribed accidents. In the initial illusion of centrality in a damaging event there is an abrupt reversal of the usual pre-disaster assumption about one’s own immunity. Often in a disaster-stricken community there are false rumors of the death of particular individuals. One may suppose that latent hostile wishes help to give rise to such beliefs, while positive feelings are also present towards those who have thus been killed off in imagination. The feelings of culpability and of being punished which are apt to be associated with misfortunes confined to the self or the family are reduced.
