To Whom and Why?

I'm deeply interested in researching decision-making and behavior given extreme stressors, including fear and time-pressures, and how those decisions are impacted by the verbal input of those around us.  

A few of several questions would be- To whom will we listen when we fear for our lives, or the lives of others, and we have only seconds to decide?  For whom will we surpress our own instinctual reactions in a crisis?  Who do they have to be, why do we grant them the authority, what do their words and tone have to do with our assessment of their mental states and with enhancing their credibility, and how does all this later fit into our processing of the aftermath and the assignation of blame/guilt or credit?

These crises could be as simple as two people inside an out-of-control automobile or as complex as a unit of soldiers engaged in intense combat.  I'm interested in the cognitive and linguistic cues involved and the decision-making process.  The results of the assessment of another's words and tone upon which we are willing to bet our lives.

After exchanging a couple emails with Prof. Malle at Brown University's department of Cognitive, Linguistic, & Psychological Sciences, I'm less sure that the research I'm interested in doing would form the basis of my pursuit of a doctorate in psycholinguistics, but I still find the questions interesting and worth asking.  I will continue to look for a professor in a psycholinguistics grad program whose own research interests might be a fit with mine, and who might be interested in working with me as I do the research.

The work might or might not be important, but it would certainly be interesting.  At least to me.