Editor’s Note: Shift Your Mindset is an occasional series from CNN’s Mindfulness, But Better team. We talk to experts about how to do things differently to live a better life.
Watch any zombie movie and you’ll likely see people panicking and turning on each other to stop the undead from eating their brains. But researchers acknowledge that such reactions are just myths.
In crises, most people respond with compassion, care, and cooperation. Humans, it turns out, have been working together to deal with disasters since the dawn of civilization.
In researching my book, Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift, I spent hundreds of hours interviewing people involved in the spontaneous evacuation of nearly 500,000 people from Lower Manhattan by boat after the World Trade Center attacks. I heard many stories about the horrors faced by stranded, dust-choked civilians who rushed to board any available boat. But everyone I spoke to denied that there was any panic, pushing or shoving. In fact, the crowd parted to allow the seriously injured to evacuate first.
Meanwhile, maritime crews repeatedly put themselves in harm’s way by turning their bows back toward ground zero to pick up more passengers desperate to escape Manhattan Island. Researchers have found examples throughout history of the “catastrophe compassion” that drives people to volunteer during disasters.
“In times of catastrophe, people often instinctively go into a very cooperative mode,” Athena Aktipis explains in her book “A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A Mostly Serious Guide to Surviving Our Wild Times.” Look at any recent catastrophe and “we see more people stepping in to help and provide aid, and chaos and exploitation of others being the exception, not the rule.”
I spoke with Aktipis, an associate professor of psychology at Arizona State University, who urges people to keep this in mind as they prepare for disasters of all kinds, especially when it comes to assembling a “Z Team” of people we want on our side when we’re faced with an apocalypse, zombie or otherwise. (Z, of course.) Aktipis is a collaboration theorist and social psychologist who has studied cooperation, human generosity, and conflict for more than 20 years.
As serious as she is about preparing for the Big One (here are her survival kit recommendations ), Aktipis is also determined to “make the apocalypse fun again.” She wrote that she hopes her book will help readers “stop fearing the uncertainty of the future and feel ready to restructure your life to create a more sustainable and resilient future for all of humanity.”
After all, she argued that “deep down, we all want to save the world,” and that cooperation is the tried and tested first guideline.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
CNN: What do you mean by apocalypse?
Athens Aktipis: The ancient Greek definition is “a revelation,” so an apocalypse is an event that reveals the risks we face. These provide us with the opportunity to learn and strengthen our vulnerabilities so that we can survive and thrive in increasingly apocalyptic times.
We are not only facing an apocalyptic future; we are also living in an apocalyptic present. Apocalypses are happening all over the world all the time. It is always dire somewhere.
Dealing with the apocalypse mentally gives us the opportunity to figure out what is truly important to us, and to build a community that protects us from risks, whether those risks are apocalyptic or mundane.
CNN: What has your work taught you about how and when people help each other?
Actions: Through fieldwork, experiments with human participants in the lab, and the computer models I create, we have seen that situations of uncertainty, unpredictability, and crisis trigger people’s instinctive desire to help each other, without expecting anything in return.
Helping in times of need creates an informal sharing of risk. Evolutionarily, it is more important to have a safety net of mutual aid than to get ahead a little.
CNN: Does this mean that humans are naturally collectivistic?
Actions: This tendency has elements of both collectivism and individualism. The ranchers we studied in southern Arizona and New Mexico, who live far from their neighbors, are a model of independence. They believe passionately in solving your own challenges. But when an unexpected problem arises—whether someone is injured or sick, or someone dies, or there is an unpredictable equipment failure—they step in to help each other without strings attached.
Our willingness to help is often based on the simple knowledge that we have the capacity to alleviate the need we see. And when we feel interdependent with those around us, it is easier to take action.
CNN: What role have apocalypses played throughout history in what you call humanity’s “apocalypse resistance”?
Actions: We have been dealing with apocalyptic situations throughout our history — even before we were humans. All organisms have evolved to deal with risk. Environmental change, migrations, wars have been part of our societies for a long time, and humans have evolved to deal with risk together, collectively.
Not only do we adapt when situations in our environment change, but once we emerge from the crisis and the process, we learn. The most important human ability to deal with crises is cooperation. Then there are our skills to communicate and share information and to bond with each other, to genuinely care about each other’s well-being. All of these things help us get through it, as they have throughout our evolution.
CNN: Given all the current global crises, how can we overcome the sense of powerlessness that prevents us from taking action?
Actions: It’s important to have a sense of adventure! It’s easy to get stuck in a fear mindset about the changes happening in the world, but we can see those challenges as opportunities to learn and grow, to better understand our world, and to be there for it. Instead of waiting for bad things to happen, we can plan ahead and think about what we can do to be more resilient. This can pay off big time when a bad thing does happen.
People are often told to manage their own stress with mindfulness, but we need mechanisms to work together to deal with the collective stress that many of us feel. Collaboration, communication, and working together in community is essential. The arts are wonderful, extremely important ways for people to deal with ambiguity and fear and to imagine potential collective futures together. Stories provide this really cool way to bring shared attention to alternative realities, futures, and possibilities that help us coordinate potential movements in new directions.
CNN: Will our evolutionary resilience to the apocalypse be enough to withstand today’s disasters?
Actions: Today’s apocalypses are unfolding on a scale that we have not yet evolved to manage. The great existential risks we face exist on a scale that we as individuals cannot handle. To survive challenges, we must meet them with a level of human cooperation, collaboration, and communication that matches the enormity of the problems. Learning to coordinate our capacities requires that we work together purposefully to find solutions in a way that feels positive to people.
We need collaborations between people with very different ways of understanding the world — for scientists, artists, doctors and policymakers to share ideas about how we can change our collective behavior. Our brains are amazing at processing information, so we have a huge range of capacities, both as individuals and collectively, that we have not yet fully exploited to address the challenges we face. There is a huge opportunity there.
One cool thing about human evolution is that we have evolved to do things that we have never done before, both individually and collectively, which is ultimately a reason to be very hopeful about the future.
CNN: You recommend forming a Z team of people you want with you in an apocalypse. Who fits the job description?
Actions: A Z-Team is a network of people you can rely on in times of need. To form your Z-Team, perform a thought experiment. If zombies were knocking on your door, who would you want on your side? Who could you rely on to overcome challenges? Who could overcome an apocalyptic event?
The members of your chosen Z-team are likely people you already want in your social network. Maintaining relationships with people you can count on will not only increase your resilience to disasters, but can also make you feel safer and less alone in the moment.
Preparing for the apocalypse offers solutions to multiple problems. Many of us feel lonely, disconnected, or like our lives have no meaning. We also feel anxious about dealing with everything that’s happening in the world. These feelings can be alleviated by forming a team of people we can trust in times of trouble. Then we can explore the risks we face together, with curiosity and a sense of humor. Maybe we can have a little fun with it. Even if you’re just joking, ask, “What special skill would you bring to the zombie apocalypse?” This can be a lighthearted way to deepen your bond, even if you’re not dealing with an actual disaster.
With so many demands on us, it can be hard to prioritize spending time connecting with the people in our lives. Thinking of this as part of preparing for the apocalypse can be a great way to free up more time. Socializing is how we invest in the relationships we value intrinsically. It’s also a way to forge bonds of mutual support, knowing that others will be there for us and we’ll be there for them.
Jessica DuLong is a Brooklyn, New York-based journalist, book contributor, writing coach, and the author of Saved at the Seawall: Stories From the September 11 Boat Lift and My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work That Built America.
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