Panic A panic is a form. of collective in which a group of people, face with an immediate threat, react in an uncoordinated and irrational way. Their behavior. is uncoordinated in the sense that cooperative social relationships and beak down. It is irrational in the sense that people's actions are not appropriate for the goals they wish to achieve. The progress of a panic follows a fairly typical course. A sudden crisis occurs people experience intense fear normal social expectations are broken each individual tries desperately to escape from the source of danger mutual cooperation breaks down and the situation becomes even more threatening as a result. Panics are especially likely to occur in unusual conditions in which everyday norms have little relevance, such as fires, floods, earthquakes or military invasions. Some kind of response is necessary in these situations, but there are few social norms that specify an appropriate reaction. Thus, when a passenger aircraft makes a crash landing people may attempt to flee before fire breaks out and cause an explosion, but there only succeed in stopping themselves and others by creating bottlenecks at the exits. Awareness of bottlenecks may lead to increased panic, with people fighting and trampling one another in the effort to escape. Despite intensive training of airline personnel in emergency evacuation procedures, a high proportion of passenger deaths are caused by a panic that prevents people from escaping in time. The most dramatic panics are those that occur in situations of extreme emergency, but not all panics are quite so frantic or short-lived. A different form. of this collective behavior. is the financial panic, which is typically provoked by rumor that the price of stocks will fall or that a bank will be unable to repay its depositors. The classic example, of course, occurred at the outset of the Great Depression in 1929 : as in other forms of panic, the individuals involved tried to protect their own interests, and in so doing they worsened the situation for themselves and everyone else. By trying to sell their stocks as quickly as possible, people ensured that the price of stocks did fall by demanding their money back from banks, they ensured that the banks actually did collapse. What will people not do when they feel panic?