Resource: Test Yourself: How Panic Proof Are You?

In the aftermath of World War II, the U.S. was not the only nuclear power. Russia was thought to possess nuclear weapons more powerful than those that destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Just as the U.S. had used atomic bombs to devastating ends against Japan, so might an enemy power launch such an attack on the U.S. The horrifying reality that Americans were no longer immune to foreign attack became ingrained in the public consciousness.

Collier's magazine ran an article in 1953 in which the writer, a federal civil defense administrator, purported that the success of 90 percent of all emergency measures after a nuclear attack would depend on whether survivors could remain calm in the face of the ensuing chaos and physical destruction. Would people panic or would they remain calm? Would they be good examples for others to follow or would they contribute to the catastrophe? This quiz, designed to demonstrate to readers how they would likely respond in the event of nuclear attack, accompanied the article.

For at least 50 years, since the dawn of the "atomic" age, the threat of nuclear attack has weighed on peoples' minds. Though this quiz was designed during the cold war, a largely ideological struggle between the former Soviet Bloc and the U.S. and its allies, today's fears of chemical or biological attack give it new relevance.

How useful do you think this quiz would be, either to the person taking it or to those compiling people's scores? Explain your answer.

How might a panic quiz be worded today?

Who would write a quiz like this today and what might be their goals in publishing it?