Poll: Would it be psychologically easier to fight zombies or live people?

[Olas]

I'm pretty sure the whole point of zombies is to allow us to fight and kill others without incurring horrendous feelings of guilt or cruelty. Zombies are more scary before you kill them perhaps because of the whole torn up flesh thing, but ultimately this would only make slaughtering them easier to except. Plus zombies can't taunt you and are usually very predictable.

 

[Thaluikhain]

And to come back to your original "has to be shot in the head" issue, a person hyped up on crack can withstand a lot except a direct shot to the heart or head so maybe the mythos isn't that far off... just sayn.

Yes and no.

Yes, but then that can apply to someone not on drugs. Sometimes, in all the excitement, people don't immediately recognise they've been shot. I've heard it said that people expect the target to go down when they are shot from seeing it in the movies, and this certainly is often the case (and police officers have died due to this)...but even to the extent that it's also the reason why many people who get shot go down, they expect to.

A person shot through the heart can still have up to 10 seconds of full voluntary movement left before they die, which causes problems if they are holding a weapon.

No, in that if you put a hole through someone, they are in big trouble. It doesn't matter how drugged up or whatever they are, it doesn't stop them bleeding, and it doesn't stop damaged muscles from being damaged. Now, that doesn't mean they don't have time to shoot back or seek medical aid, but it's not something they can shrug off.

 

[saints1544]

But in a hand to hand combat situation, they would have a huge advantage, unless you had something to attack with.

 

[Esotera]

I'm going to say that as long as the zombies don't look that human, there won't be any psychological issues. There's a whole mountain of evidence that putting on a uniform or wearing glasses makes it a lot easier to inflict damage on another human being, so if you have a horrible diseased green thing snarling at you, you probably won't think about whether you want to decapitate it for as long as a human.

Psychopaths need not apply of course.

 

[lacktheknack]

I can't imagine looking into the eyes of a slavering zombie is nearly so haunting as the eyes of a man about to die.

So zombies. Zombies would be easier.

 

[Akytalusia]

zombies are already dead. that simple fact alone is basically all you need to develop apathy towards killing them. for the same case toward living beings, it's a much more personal matter. so i'll say, in general, zombies by far.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I think a lot of people would see putting down a zombie as a form of mercy, and I'd probably be one of them. Plus zombies don't beg and plead for their lives and other such things.

 

[Something Amyss]

I'd rather fight the dead, or undead, than fight living people. I would rather "kill" an undead creature than another human, even if I had a valid reason to kill that human.

Even the worst example most people can think of, the Nazis, are still human beings. Reprehensible human beings, but still human beings. I'd rather take on a mob of zombies.

I think that would take its toll pretty fast too, but nowhere near as fast as killing even a few people.

 

[Basement Cat]

After thinking about it I realized my real answer was 'Other'.

Why 'other'? Basically I'm a passive guy. Growing up I was one of the kids who always was trying to break up fights, not stand on the sidelines egging two wrestling idiots on.

I don't like violence. Not real violence.

Games and movies don't count. I haven't lost it so far that I can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm late for my training session at the Jedi Temple.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

ZOMBIES OF COURSE!

If you can't see the moral difference between killing a brain-dead danger to all humans and a living person then wtf is wrong with you OP?

Admin heads-up: No insults or flaming were intended here, people ask "wtf is wrong with you?" all the time at social gatherings, at least that's what people say to me :/

 

[Thaluikhain]

ZOMBIES OF COURSE!

If you can't see the moral difference between killing a brain-dead danger to all humans and a living person then wtf is wrong with you OP?

As I said in the OP, I was wondering about the fear of becoming a zombie yourself, instead of jsut being killed, having to shoot at things that used to be on your side, and how it might threaten religious beliefs and so on.

Of course it's morally easier to kill something that's not human.

 

[Spade Lead]

If we are talking purely about PTSD related stress, Zombies are going to be easier far and away, but if we are going to include the shock of finding out about the zombies in the first place, as well as the possibility of loved ones being affected by the outbreak, which is not a usual stress for "Conventional" soldiers (Terrorism is NOT conventional warfare) then it could come out even, or possibly easier to fight humans in a conventional war.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

ZOMBIES OF COURSE!

If you can't see the moral difference between killing a brain-dead danger to all humans and a living person then wtf is wrong with you OP?

As I said in the OP, I was wondering about the fear of becoming a zombie yourself, instead of jsut being killed, having to shoot at things that used to be on your side, and how it might threaten religious beliefs and so on.

Of course it's morally easier to kill something that's not human.

I'd rather shoot something that USED to be on my side than shoot something that is ACTIVELY on my side. The way I see it, becoming a zombie is like dying anyways so it's no difference to me. And believe me, religion is far more against killing normal people than it is against killing zombies.

 

[SEXTON HALE]

Im more or less indiferent to fighting either.
Im not going to seek out a conflict but I am well prepared anyway.
Zombies are only doing whats in their nature while humans are doing it for they're own stupid reasons.

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

I think I'd lose it, knowing that a zombie wouldn't go down no matter how many times I shot it in the chest, ignoring all pain if the brain is intact.

World War Z covered the psychological aspect quite well, if I may say so.

i agree with this. also, world war Z is an excellent book.

 

[Alcoholidayer]

Putting to rest reanimated dead organic matter to me is only a question of physics, and not of ethics. So my conscience doesn't get involved at all.

Live people are both physically and psychologically harder to fight with, presuming that the zombie is your standard cookie cutter zombie.

 

[BeeGeenie]

People use many psychological strategies to lessen the traumatic effects of killing. One of those methods is dehumanizing/demonizing the enemy, which war propaganda has been doing for millenia. If the enemy seems less human, then it'll be easier to deal with having to kill them.
This means that zombies are automatically easier to kill than people, because they are less human in the first place.

 

[kickassfrog]

Zombies could probably be rationalised away as being more like hunting than killing other sapients.
Killing another human, even in self defence, would ultimately leave me with flashes of empathy as to the circumstances that person died in.

So yeah, zombies.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

people often preffer reason to conflict, save for zealous nutjobs and the insane.
so with people, conflict may be avoided some way through rational debate or surrender, zombies don't tend to do this.