It's not a moral failing; it's a physiological response. Like 22-year-old Sam, who went out drinking with his girlfriend and best mate in Manchester. A lost phone and a few too many drinks later, and Sam was raped by two men: "When you're being attacked, your body makes the decision between fight, flight or freeze. I froze."

Like all victims everywhere, Sam didn't want to go catatonic. It's not about courage. Whether you freeze for a few seconds or a few hours, it's not a choice. We think it is because it never happens to characters in movies, and it sure as hell never happens in our fantasies. But judging real survivors' performance against a fictional scenario is an objectively shitty thing to do.

Your pupils may dilate, causing tunnel vision, bright patches, and dark spots. And this is wonderful when you consider that danger gets a little more complicated when you can't, ya know, see it. This ramps up your fear. And if you thought that it was hard to multitask when you have to both cook a pizza AND watch all of Season 2 of The Good Place, imagine how hard it is when you're in danger.

Then there's the study that came out in May on soldiers facing their first combat situations, which found that 24 percent of veterans reported tunnel vision, and 18 percent experienced a loss of hearing. That's about one out of every four or five heavily trained soldiers who found their most basic and primary senses going haywire right when they needed them most. Again, that never happens in movies or your ass-kicking daydreams. But there's more ...

Related: The 5 Least Courageous Things Ever Done In A Crisis

Sadly, children getting pulled out of their caregiver's arms during a crisis that involves water is shockingly common. If you didn't catch Tia Coleman's tearful interview after losing nine family members in a boat accident earlier this year, she said her sister-in-law's final words were "Grab the baby!"

And while I'll admit I felt a visceral urge to scream at the screen (as if what a grieving woman who lost nine family members needs is the self-righteous rantings of someone watching from the safety of their sofa), I also know the same adrenaline dump that wrecks your vision and hearing can also mess up your coordination.

When you are faced with danger, blood helpfully starts fleeing your fingers and toes to go back up things like your heart and lungs. So while your big muscle groups tense for action, your extremities start to tingle or go numb and your fine motor skills go to shit. Thus your hands become weird flippers right when you need them most. Thanks, human body!

Zimbardo argues that our experiences shape how we react in a crisis, noting that a full third of "heroes" were people who had volunteered a significant part of their time before their big moment came. And people who survived a traumatic experience themselves were three times more likely to take action to help those in need.

None of it guarantees success -- remember the anecdotes earlier about professional police and soldiers -- but there's no question that some of your body's dumb, self-defeating responses can be overcome with practice that lets your system adjust to being in "OH SHIT" mode.

There's also no question that you shouldn't blame yourself if, when a potential hero moment comes, it doesn't play out the way you imagined it.

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And hey, even if you are about to panic, couldn't hurt to have some pepper spray on you.

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