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

[Thaluikhain]

Thinking about fighting zombies, and how it'd compare with fighting people. Now, IMHO, zombies being generally slow, stupid and clumsy puts them at a truly massive disadvantage (I don't buy the nothing but a headshot, or every slight injury turns you into one things, those are suspension of disbelief breaking for me), but I was wondering about the psychological effects.

Killing another human being is no small thing, but then again people do it all teh time. Fighting zombies, though...you have to start wondering about the afterlife, have to kill things that used to be people like you (maybe including frieds/family), worry about turning into a zombie yourself and so on.

On the other hand, people seem to like the idea of being able to shoot zombies without it being in any way morally questionable.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Zombies are people you don't need to feel a scrap of emotion when shooting their faces off. They're dead bodies. A person, enemy soldier or not, is still a living human, just one who seems to be on the wrong side at the moment. So yeah, much less taxing on the mind to kill zombies.

 

[yuval152]

Zombies can't do anything but walk slowly and try to mole you, humans can use guns, weapons and are much smarter. also there is no moral problems.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I imagine at first killing a zombie would be traumatic,
Because it's a zombie and the walking dead aren't normally something we see in everyday life.

After killing a few million of them, the novelty might wear off and you'd just be killing dead humans.

 

[geK0]

There would be more guilt associated with killing an actual person, also, hostile humans are potentially more dangerous seeing as they have actual intelligence and the ability to use weapons. You always know that a zombie is an enemy, they will just attack you unprovoked, but people, you never know whether you can trust them or whether you should have allied with them instead of killing them (again, guilt). Also, killing a person would carry the risk of other people exacting revenge on you.

 

[King of Asgaard]

Depends on who the person/zombie is and whether or not you have/had a connection to them.
Some random guy, sure, little to no trouble.
Someone you knew, you might hesitate to pull the trigger.

 

[Rastien]

One of the reasons zombies are such a popular monster.

They are human, or were at some point, so you can destroy them in as brutal away possible guilt free because they are "zombies". You can act out all those darkest most visceral and violent acts that flit through your mind about the people in your day to day lives, guilt free.

Of course it's easier to fight a zombie than a live person you have the emotional distance, they are already dead. You're merely making sure they don't get back up and stay dead.

People may claim they could kill another human for breaking into their home and sure enough they might even have the gaul to pull the trigger. But the after effects of the fact you just killed another human being and ended their life might not be as easy to deal with as once thought. Zombies? not so much for reasons outlined above.

 

[saints1544]

Ok, while im a huge fan of the whole zombie realm, what is a more likely scenario:
1) The dead rising for no reason and trying to kill us all.
2) There being a new virus/chemical weapon/epidemic that gives the infected zombie like characteristics.

The odds would have to favor #2 highly. This means that you are choosing to kill people that are still human but are kind of sick. Is there a cure available but you cant get to it? Is there a possibility for a cure and you are killing innocents? Is it justifiable considering their condition? This brings about the whole spectrum of guilt/remorse/moral dilemmas/etc than the typical walking undead does. Walking dead is just an easy scapegoat for us to regress back to caveman instincts of kill or be killed.

My thoughts on the matter.

 

[Thaluikhain]

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.

Well, I was excluding that, because, even for the walking dead, that's absurd.

 

[saints1544]

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.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Neither one would be easy, but zombies would be much easier. Much as in chess, victory in combat generally goes to the commander who understands not only where the pieces are now, but where they will be in three moves. With zombies, you know the answer every time.

Since zombie behavior is so simple and predictable, the same basic tactics work every time. String up some barbed wire and zombies will never, ever stop catching themselves in it. No matter how many you headshot from your vantage point, the others will never, ever seek cover. And so forth.

Humans have the annoying habit of observing the situation and changing actions to suit it. They also tend to use firearms, explosives, genuine teamwork, and a sense of self-preservation. All this makes them incalculably more dangerous.

As I don't believe in god, souls, afterlives, or any of that malarkey, I don't see much difference between killing a human and decapitating a zombie. Anything that is enthusiastically trying to end my life is a valid target.

 

[davros3000]

overall, as a society, propaganda will have an easier time identifying the zombie as an 'other' to be killed. Its an easy label and a message people will find easier to buy in to.

Going to war with a society is more complicated. People in western societies don't fall as easy for the whole war stuff (not that this doesnt happen).

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I would require quite a few spare pants but I would be a lot more comfortable blowing the head off a zombie than a human. I wold prefer to be fighting live humans though because while I don't feel like killing people I probably would to avoid a zombie invasion.

 

[Sean Steele]

Zombies, because it would be physically easier to fight a zombie, come on, its a human with no intuition, terrible hand eye co-ordination, and no sense of self defense. Humans are crafty as shit zombies are morons.