Citation

Elinder M, Erixson O. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2012; 109(33): 13220-13224.

Affiliation

Department of Economics, Uppsala University, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, National Academy of Sciences)

DOI

10.1073/pnas.1207156109

PMID

22847426

Abstract

Since the sinking of the Titanic, there has been a widespread belief that the social norm of "women and children first" (WCF) gives women a survival advantage over men in maritime disasters, and that captains and crew members give priority to passengers. We analyze a database of 18 maritime disasters spanning three centuries, covering the fate of over 15,000 individuals of more than 30 nationalities. Our results provide a unique picture of maritime disasters. Women have a distinct survival disadvantage compared with men. Captains and crew survive at a significantly higher rate than passengers. We also find that: the captain has the power to enforce normative behavior; there seems to be no association between duration of a disaster and the impact of social norms; women fare no better when they constitute a small share of the ship's complement; the length of the voyage before the disaster appears to have no impact on women's relative survival rate; the sex gap in survival rates has declined since World War I; and women have a larger disadvantage in British shipwrecks. Taken together, our findings show that human behavior in life-and-death situations is best captured by the expression "every man for himself."

Language: en