For PJ2 and P51guy: many thanks, my brain hurts less now.
In re PJ2:
I understand both the "shock/surprise" response and the "ego" factor you describe. Disbelief may be the response to the first factor, and denial may be the response to the second. I do not believe these are broad, cultural issues but they could be training issues.
We used to teach in CRM courses that those responses were common to all pilots, low time, high time, and a trap for any of us.
Reducing to the smallest possible time fragment the transition from "WTF" and "what was that" and "can this be happening to me?" to diagnosis and problem solving, and acting mode, ( and eventual return to standard OODA loop) requires teaching crews about that tendency, and why going into pure problem solving mode is how to recover.
That said, from some of the drills we ran to task saturate crews in the sims, the time delta in transition was as much personality driven as anything else. Training and habit forming, and reforming, and continual awareness (the infamous "war against complacency") were the equalizer.
I think my favorite anecdote was an evening sim one of our wing's sqaudrons scheduled to get some instrument time to keep up on proficiency. These events were typically "let's shoot x approaches and get the numbers up in the log book."
I turned it into a series of opportunities to discover how they handled surprises.
While I got a few "why are you screwing with us?" remarks between approaches, by the time we were done, we had all learned a thing or two.
I bought the first round at the O'Club after the debrief. I admit I'd been indulging myself a bit.