Why can we plan for a Zombie Apocalypse but not for our own death?
We’ve all seen the movies. Life as we know it is over, the world is taken over by zombies.
In fact, one in ten Brits have planned for what they might do there was a Zombie Apocalypse.
Yet somehow we find it harder to talk about our own deaths.
The topic is covered in the latest episode of Yahoo UK’s podcast Britain is a Nation of…, which this week looks at death.
According to previous research by YouGov Omnibus, one in 20 Brits (11%) have a zombie plan – what they would do if the dead started coming back to life.
The poll found that young people are likely to be more prepared, with nearly a quarter (23%) of 18-24 year-olds knowing what they would do, compared to just 3% of those aged 55 and over. Men are also more likely to have zombie plans than women (14% vs 8%).
Of those who have thought it through, the most popular plan was to hole up and hide somewhere, with nearly half (45%) saying that’s what they would do.
Four in ten (43%) would gather supplies, while nearly a quarter (23%) would gather weapons.
Other plans included rescuing or meeting up with family and friends, killing zombies or working with other survivors.
But one in ten (9%) played it safe and refused to divulge their plan, the survey found.
Listen to the full episode of Britain is a Nation of… below
Speaking on the podcast, Cariad Lloyd, host of the award-winning podcast The Griefcast, said that Brits are happy to put thought into what they’d do in the event of an invasion by zombies, but often don’t want to discuss death openly.
“Death is not like the movies,” she said. “We’re very happy to deal with extremes, we’re happy to deal with a zombie apocalypse.
“But really I’d say, when you’re watching a zombie film or any end of the world film you’ll see a shot where a whole street is killed and 200 people are dead but you don’t feel anything because you know that’s not real, that’s too much for my brain to cope with.”
She added: “But the idea of someone showing you very truthfully a documentary of a man dying, people are like, ‘woah, no thank you’.
“Because they don’t want to face the truth of it which is death can be boring, can be very slow, can be really painful and can be dull just waiting for someone to die – it can take a long time.
“Or it can be so quick that before you know it they’re in a coma and you haven’t had a chance to say anything
“So I think people hold that Hollywood idea in their head so it makes them feel like, ‘oh i can do it tomorrow, I can tell them tomorrow, I’m not going to die, it’s going to be okay.”
To hear more unpacking of statistics about British people, listen to the full episode above, or download it on Apple Podcasts, Acast, or Spotify to listen while on the go.
