Women and Children Whenever

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In a fire or related emergency, there’s one rule by which we’re supposed to abide: women and children first.

But do we abide by it in real life? Science says: That depends.

Basically, it depends on whether there’s enough time during the disaster for social norms to take back over from pure panic.

That’s the conclusion of a new study (abstract) about the Titanic and the Lusitania. In short, the Titanic sunk very slowly, allowing for social norms to be restored; the Lusitania sunk quickly, meaning it was every man and woman and child for him or her self.

Here are the study’s results, as reported in Time:

Aboard the Titanic, children under 16 years old were nearly 31% likelier than the reference group to have survived, but those on the Lusitania were 0.7% less likely. Males ages 16 to 35 on the Titanic had a 6.5% poorer survival rate than the reference group but did 7.9% better on the Lusitania. For females in the 16-to-35 group, the gap was more dramatic: those on the Titanic enjoyed a whopping 48.3% edge; on the Lusitania it was a smaller but still significant 10.4%. The most striking survival disparity — no surprise, given the era — was determined by class. The Titanic’s first-class passengers had a 43.9% greater chance of making it off the ship and into a lifeboat than the reference group; the Lusitania’s, remarkably, were 11.5% less likely.

There were a lot of factors behind these two distinct survival profiles — the most significant being time. Most shipwrecks are comparatively slow-motion disasters, but there are varying degrees of slow. The Lusitania slipped below the waves a scant 18 min. after the German torpedo hit it. The Titanic stayed afloat for 2 hr. 40 min. — and human behavior differed accordingly.

As the paper’s authors put it:

This difference could be attributed to the fact that the Lusitania sank in 18 min, creating a situation in which the short-run flight impulse dominated behavior. On the slowly sinking Titanic (2 h, 40 min), there was time for socially determined behavioral patterns to reemerge.

Mind Hacks notes a related study of who survives air disasters. Short answer: men: “In a 1970 Civil Aeromedical institute study of three crashes involving emergency evacuations, the most prominent factor influencing survival was gender (followed closely by proximity to exit). Adult males were by far the most likely to get out alive. Why? Presumably because they pushed everyone else out of the way.”

Another thing that can help you survive? Not having any friends. As a researcher reports in this New York Times article, a study of the 2003 nightclub fire in Rhode Island showed that people who were at the club with family, friends, or people they knew were less likely to escape — presumably because they were slowed down or held back by trying to help their loved ones. Now, obviously, this is how they should have behaved by any reasonable standard. But it doesn’t increase one’s chances of getting out alive.

Humans are capable of great altruism. Follow the example of the Lusitania folks to live; follow the example of the Titanic folks to die honorably. Remember, though, that the brain — in a panic — doesn’t always give us a choice.

• Neuroworld looked at why we do or don’t donate to charity here and here.

• Neuroworld looked at why altruism can’t solve global poverty here.