Hick’s Law in Survival Situations

A commonly agreed upon theory about human nature is Hick’s Law. It is regularly applied in tactical training, marketing campaigns and believe it or not, survival training. In fact, a vast amount of studies can benefit from the application of Hick’s Law.

Basically, Hick’s Law states that the more choices a person has, the longer it takes to make a decision. In any given situation, if a person is presented with numerous options rather than just one or two, it will increase the amount of time it takes to decide on one.

Applying Hick’s Law to Survival

Now that you know this very basic fact about human nature, how can you use it in your survival preparation? First, it is time to increase your knowledge about survival and get to know your kit really well. Now, look at your kit again. Are there any tools you can eliminate without hurting your survival plans? You want to have adequate tools, without creating too many options that will only end up hindering you. Having to decide which tool to use in a particular situation steals time and energy. Practice with your chosen gear and really familiarize yourself with everything each tool in your kit can do. This will save you precious time in an emergency situation. You don’t want to be hemming and hawing trying to figure out which tool will be right for the job.

Let’s examine the flip side of that law. You also need to be prepared to deal with numerous options. To do this, you will need to take some time to evaluate each option. It is very likely that you will be facing several hundred or even thousands of options in a true urban preparedness or survival situation. You will need to decide whether you will shelter in place, bug out, how you will secure water, managing first aid and so on. These are not snap decisions and will take time and careful consideration.

There are several different ways to go about this decision-making process in order to make it as smooth as possible. You will need to familiarize yourself with different methods of decision making as well as learn how to set priorities in an emergency.

Please take the time to really think about your future. Save yourself a lot of unnecessary stress by going through your gear today. Pull out what you do not absolutely need. Choose gear that can be used for a variety of different jobs and can be used more than once. It is imperative you make a plan now, before an actual emergency happens. You will be saving yourself a lot of wasted time and energy and a great deal of frustration by learning everything you can now, rather than in a life or death situation.

Craig Caudill is an outdoor instructor. Click here to see some of the gear that he recommends on Dan’s Depot or at his Nature Reliance School.