Have you been faced with an unfamiliar and stressful situation? Maybe it was as simple as watching a fender bender. Maybe you saw a purse get snatched. Maybe you were told not to leave your house until further notice.

Think about that moment; what did you do, anything? What prevented you, or compelled you to act? Our brains are doing complex logic and reasoning every second of every day, and when you’re faced with a completely foreign and novel situation, you can overwhelm that system that’s used to handling the decision making process.

When faced with stressful and foreign situations our brains go into a different mode. Because we spend so much of our time avoiding stress or de-stressing our lives, when we’re faced with these situations it’s a shock to our system.

So when you’re faced with these unthinkable situations, what can you expect from yourself? What will you do? How will you act? Today, we’re going to talk about all of that, and to help us is Dr. Mary Nelan, Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas in Emergency Management and Disaster Science.