Notions of psychological frailty have been at the forefront of debates around the public response to the COVID‐19 pandemic. In particular, there is the argument that collective selfishness, thoughtless behaviour, and over‐reaction would make the effects of COVID‐19 much worse. The same kinds of claims have been made in relation to other kinds of emergencies, such as fires, earthquakes, and sinking ships. We argue that in these cases as well as in the case of the COVID‐19 pandemic, other factors are better explanations for fatalities – namely under‐reaction to threat, systemic or structural factors, and mismanagement. Psychologizing disasters serves to distract from the real causes and thus from who might be held responsible. Far from being the problem, collective behaviour in emergencies – including the solidarity and cooperation so commonly witnessed among survivors – is the solution, one that should be harnessed more effectively in policy and practice.

中文翻译：

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在上下文中的COVID-19：人们为什么在紧急情况下死亡？这可能不是因为集体心理。

心理脆弱的观念一直是围绕公众对COVID-19大流行的反应的辩论的最前沿。特别是，有这样一种论点，即集体的自私，无意识的行为和过度反应会使COVID-19的影响变得更糟。对于其他种类的紧急情况，例如火灾，地震和沉船，也提出了相同的要求。我们认为，在这些情况下以及在COVID-19大流行的情况下，其他因素可以更好地解释死亡人数，即对威胁的反应不足，系统性或结构性因素以及管理不善。心理灾难有助于分散实际原因，从而分散可能由谁负责。远不是问题，