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British gentlemen politely died on Titanic - sektor_Gaza - 01-20-2009
British passengers of the ill-fated liner Titanic lost their opportunity to survive to pushy American fellow travellers due to the social norms of polite behaviour that bound them, a recent study said.
Decision-making in life and death situations and how extreme risk and shock affects social norms are the main topics of the study by economist David Savage from Queensland University of Technology.
He says even with one’s life is at stake, people generally don’t drop socially-approved behaviour in favour of more beneficial, but shunned, self-interest. He analysed the results of Titanic disaster where people had to either secure a place at the scarce lifeboats or die.
“We observe that social norms such as ‘women and children first’ are surviving in such external situations that create life and death situations,” Savage said, explaining that being a women on the doomed vessel increased the probability of survival by up to 53 percent, as many women and almost all children survived in the disaster.
Just having a child on your hands had a robust impact on the chances to save one’s life, irrelevant of the gender.
The study also suggests British passengers were politely queuing to get their place on a lifeboat, and on many occasions allowed others to take their place. Americans, who were not used to this etiquette, had no problem seizing their chance of survival, the data indicates.
Savage concludes that altruism and social norms play the central part in situations of life and death, and while people tend to exploit their advantages, they don’t revert to ‘survival of the fittest’ behaviour.
Re: British gentlemen politely died on Titanic - Ivan - 01-25-2009
Interesting facts...
But to me the most amusing is the family of the scientist David Savage. :lol:
Re: British gentlemen politely died on Titanic - Terry - 02-08-2009
we can't really say whether it's true or not. I understand that Mr. Savage is a researcher, but nobody actually knows how people behaved when Titanic was sinking. Just remember the movie "Titanic", what we saw there explains that a lot of panic happened on that boat, and even men tried to take a place on saving boats, by taking a left child with them.
Re: British gentlemen politely died on Titanic - Faw_Peter - 02-21-2009
I don't understand why this Titanic is such a popular history for everybody. 4 out of 6 billion people on Earth have heard of this event. I see nothing special in it. Boats sink everyday.
Re: British gentlemen politely died on Titanic - Benn - 02-22-2009
Faw_Peter Wrote:I don't understand why this Titanic is such a popular history for everybody. 4 out of 6 billion people on Earth have heard of this event. I see nothing special in it. Boats sink everyday.Indeed Peter, boats sink everyday, but not every day 1,500 people die in similar catastrophes. Moreover, it's the movie released in 1999 that made the event popular.
Re: British gentlemen politely died on Titanic - M.Helen - 03-04-2009
oh I just love the Titanic movie... it's so unbelievably subtle. Actually you are right Benn. I've never heard of Titanic before I watched the movie. After that, I remember spending a lot of time on collecting different materials about the movie and Titanic itself.
Re: British gentlemen politely died on Titanic - Benn - 03-06-2009
at least movies can make girls learn a bit of history :-)
watch interesting pictures of Titanic
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl6FFc04hoU">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl6FFc04hoU</a><!-- m -->
Re: British gentlemen politely died on Titanic - M.Helen - 03-11-2009
Quote:at least movies can make girls learn a bit of history :-)
girls know history better than men do. You are very exact and see things at surface, but remember, behind any tragedy there is a woman, a love story etc. Nothing happens in vain