Acting like a zombie. Does it Work?

[bigmattdaddywack]

Some people claim that acting and making one self look like a zombie will camouflage one into the zombie horde so they may move about freely. This was shown in "Shaun of the Dead" and "Zombieland", does this really work or is it nonsense?

[AgentBlack]

according to The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks (pg 6) no.

"Experiments have been done in which humans have attempted to confuse approaching ghouls by mimicking their motions and adopting a shambling, awkward limp. To date, none of these attempts have succeeded."

[Luminary703]

I would never try to walk among the dead.

[Sckitzo]

Works for me every day, yet to be bitten by a hobo or tweaker yet.

[JudgeDreadd]

Depends how they sense the difference between the living and the dead. Smell? Sight? Hearing? Electrosensory? Other?

[bigmattdaddywack]

Works for me every day, yet to be bitten by a hobo or tweaker yet.

Fuckin right dude. That is fuckin awesome. LMAO

[Luminary703]

Depends how they sense the difference between the living and the dead. Smell? Sight? Hearing? Electrosensory? Other?

I think it's blood.

[Ninjin]

It's kind of hard to tell how zombies distinct humans from animals. Usually in movies and other media, zombies don't attack anything other than humans so we assume that they have some way of instinctively telling the difference without having to do complex thinking.

In the case of reanimated undead, everything is dead in the body except for the brain, which is drastically changed(Depending on which survival novel you read) and everything else stays the same. Since I highly doubt zombies can instinctively tell living humans from everything else from sight, I doubt acting like a zombie will do much of anything.

Since there's no evidence that zombification can change the acuity of the nose and ears, it's unlikely that they hunt by smell or noise.

The most likely way that zombies hunt the living is by the use of electrosensory. Since the brain and nervous system are the parts of a creature's body that would develop such a sense(As with evidence in animals such as sharks) it's quite possible that the brain develops this sense when the victim turns. This would be a great way for zombies to distinct humans from each other and from animals and plants since they themselves don't create an electromagnetic field and therefore wouldn't attack each other. Also, the human body's electromagnetic field is bound to be different than that of a dog's due to body size and other variables.

The ability to sense electromagnetic fields may also aid zombies in finding the living by being attracted the the field sent out by electrical devices such as portable radios, cell phones, and even flashlights. In terms of effectiveness when it comes to hunting, electrosensing is a quite efficient at targeting a specific species.

That's just my .02

[JudgeDreadd]

It's kind of hard to tell how zombies distinct humans from animals. Usually in movies and other media, zombies don't attack anything other than humans so we assume that they have some way of instinctively telling the difference without having to do complex thinking.

In the case of reanimated undead, everything is dead in the body except for the brain, which is drastically changed(Depending on which survival novel you read) and everything else stays the same. Since I highly doubt zombies can instinctively tell living humans from everything else from sight, I doubt acting like a zombie will do much of anything.

Since there's no evidence that zombification can change the acuity of the nose and ears, it's unlikely that they hunt by smell or noise.

The most likely way that zombies hunt the living is by the use of electrosensory. Since the brain and nervous system are the parts of a creature's body that would develop such a sense(As with evidence in animals such as sharks) it's quite possible that the brain develops this sense when the victim turns. This would be a great way for zombies to distinct humans from each other and from animals and plants since they themselves don't create an electromagnetic field and therefore wouldn't attack each other. Also, the human body's electromagnetic field is bound to be different than that of a dog's due to body size and other variables.

The ability to sense electromagnetic fields may also aid zombies in finding the living by being attracted the the field sent out by electrical devices such as portable radios, cell phones, and even flashlights. In terms of effectiveness when it comes to hunting, electrosensing is a quite efficient at targeting a specific species.

That's just my .02

+1

[Ammonium]

The details of zombie/zombie identification are complex and best left to another thread (although Ninjin made an excellent start).

The answer to the question "Does acting like a zombie work?" is no. So far, there is no reliable method of moving quietly amongst the undead without becoming one of them.

[StrangerThings]

"Does acting like a zombie really work?"

Sure, why not? Each author creates a universe in which zombies exist. In these universes zombies behave by whatever rules the author chooses for them. So in some zombie stories it works, in most others it doesn't.

An organically based zombie (infected) would have to detect and track it's prey by some form of biologically based sensory information (sight, sound, smell... etc). That being the case, these senses can always be fooled. Zombies could be lured into attacking inanimate objects, as well as being deceived into not attacking otherwise viable prey.

Zombies are routinely portrayed as possessing something close to no cognitive abilities. They simply respond to certain stimulus. If the way an object moves, smells, looks, or whatever, triggers "human" in their limited brain, then they move towards that stimulus. Then, once in range, they attack. If an object doesn't produce the prerequisite level of stimulus, it is ignored. Due to basic biological variations, each individual zombie would have varying degrees of sensory acuity and thresholds of stimulus response.

If you were trying to be "realistic" about the matter, what you would find is that some zombies could be readily fooled, while others would be almost impossible to trick. So I think it would be conceivable that you could slip past a small group of particularly dimwitted specimens. But with a large zed population, there would be enough keen sensed zombies to see through your disguise, and of course, their ensuing moans would tip off the rest of the horde.

But of you're talking supernatural zombies... all bets are off.

-2 cents

[Koeniginator]

It worked for Bill Murray, didn't it?

[Spikey614]

That was just a Movie!

[JTNieman]

That was just a Movie!

:|

[berretaboy357]

Zombies have superior sense of smell. The smell camo wouldn't work. It would also probably give you away. Shambling like a zombie is impossible. They move at an incredibly slow rate and it would be inconvienient. Some iven say they have a sixth sense, which means stealth is impossible.

[TheDelusionalBlogger]

It just seems like a really bad idea. I mean so much stuff could go wrong, for example what if you sneeze?

[Blasphemous]

I'm with the whole smell theory.

[gelgoog]

That was just a Movie!

[Itchni]

It could quite possibly work, if you knew what kind of zombie you were dealing with. I wouldn't try though. Stealth and force are two much better ways from getting from place to place, and unless the type of zombie we are dealing with are something like the infected, it would take quite a long time to get where you need to get to. Shambling takes up quite a bit of energy. All in all i would myself consider it at best stupid and at worst suicidal to try blending into the zombies.

[Der Wanderer]

The most likely way that zombies hunt the living is by the use of electrosensory. Since the brain and nervous system are the parts of a creature's body that would develop such a sense(As with evidence in animals such as sharks) it's quite possible that the brain develops this sense when the victim turns. This would be a great way for zombies to distinct humans from each other and from animals and plants since they themselves don't create an electromagnetic field and therefore wouldn't attack each other. Also, the human body's electromagnetic field is bound to be different than that of a dog's due to body size and other variables.

If that is the case then your answer would be yes, right? Just change your electrostatic field, e.g. a neopren suit will do this well, or get one of this freaking electrical muscle stimulators and swoosh you don't look like a human anymore

[SixStringRazor]

I vote yes. It worked for Shaun just fine didn't it? Therefore we have definitive proof of its usefulness. Surely Hollywood wouldn't lead us astray would they?

[Blasphemous]

I vote yes. It worked for Shaun just fine didn't it? Therefore we have definitive proof of its usefulness. Surely Hollywood wouldn't lead us astray would they?

I can curve bullets in mid air, download martial arts and instantly change clothes in a phone booth... so why not?

[SurvivalistWriter]

Well, given the dead haven't risen yet, there's no way to tell. Unless by zombie you mean "Corporate Idiot", in which case it would probably work.

[Broccoli Killer]

I really think smell has a lot to do with identification of 'friend' or 'food'. In the 28 days/weeks universe, Ragers identified potential prey by the 'civilized smell' of perfume and deoderant.

In the Walking Dead series, two characters rubbed some Zed residue all over their clothes to shield their scent from the lurker Zeds.

In short if you smell like you haven't showered in weeks, you'd be pretty safe I think.