ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a discussion on implications of the model for predicting community responses to terrorist attacks and/or use of weapons of mass destruction. The collective response to threat and disaster has often been portrayed as tending toward hysteria and social breakdown, with mass panic as the natural response to physical danger and perceived entrapment. While mass panic and self-preservation are often assumed to be the natural response to physical danger and perceived entrapment, the literature indicates that expressions of mutual aid are common and often predominate, and collective flight from danger is so delayed that survival is threatened. According to the classical "entrapment theory" of mass panic, flight occurs if people believe that, physical danger is present or imminent, and escape routes are either limited or rapidly closing. Conditions are individually necessary; together they provide conditions for group flight. The chapter also focuses on individual and collective flight behavior, recognizing that such behavior can assume varying degrees of intensity.
