Die of Embarrasement or Die a Horrible Death

[steel]

How many of you have been in some situation in which there was some potential problem but you were too embarrassed to speak up?

A friend related an incident in which he was on a large plane ready to take off when condensation started venting from the overhead air vents. It did not turn out to be a problem but he said it was very scary at the time and only 1 passenger of the 150 or so on board spoke up. The rest were too embarrassed to step out into the lime light and potentially save everyone’s life.

I think that this is a very common thing that people will risk death before embarrassment

[Maister]

I think I read it in a Dale Carnegie book, where it said when asked in a survey what their biggest fear was most Americans listed "fear of speaking in public" - just ahead of death.

[otterpop]

I think I read it in a Dale Carnegie book, where it said when asked in a survey what their biggest fear was most Americans listed "fear of speaking in public" as their greatest fear - just ahead of death.

And as someone observed that means most people at a funeral would rather be the person in the coffin than the person giving the eulogy!

[dandy_warhol]

there's the phenomena known as the Bystander Effect. it is when a situation arises and no one speaks up because everyone else thinks that someone else will. e.g. not saying anything about the condensation on the air vent because you think someone else will.

however, studies suggest that once you are aware of the Bystander effect you are less likely to succumb to it and more likely to act rather than watch and wait.

[Zoning Goddess]

I was in a plane several months ago with water dripping on me and all I did was ask to change seats once the plane was up; it never occurred to me to freak out.

The only time I came close to that kind of situation was while landing in San Francisco years ago and it seemed that another plane was dove-tailing in too close to the plane I was on. Turned out it was just landing on a parallel runway at exactly the same time. But I was discreet about my panic.

[Bear Up North]

My experience didn't need a quick reaction. It didn't involve tons of welded metal flying through the air. It involved my Uncle John's funeral.....

My brothers and this Bear were all pallbearers for good ole' Uncle John. He died of a massive heart attack while working the assembly line at Toledo's huge Jeep plant. (The olde plant.....now replaced by a more efficient assembly plant.)

As we were carrying the casket out of the funeral home I noticed a red fluid dripping from the casket.

I motioned to my older brother and he looked at the steady red dripping. "Should we say anything?", he inquired. I shrugged and we didn't. We just agreed to keep Uncle John's widow's eyes away from the red drip. We diverted her attention.....I don't remember how. She never saw the dripping embalming fluid.

Or was it something else?

This is a true story. Funeral home in Trilby (a Toledo neighborhood).

Cadabear

[Downtown]

I think that this is a very common thing that people will risk death before embarrassment

After 9/11, I remember seeing that over 600 people turned off their computers before leaving their desks in the twin towers. People just didn't want to believe that something catastrophic had happened.