Women and Children First
25 March 2011 at 10:11 am Peter G. Klein 3 comments
| Peter Klein |
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Titanic disaster. Well, everything behavioral economists want to know, namely who survived — a case study in “Behavior under Extreme Conditions” (Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2011). Bruno Frey, David Savage and Benno Torgler note that the “common assumption . . . that in such situations, self-interested reactions will predominate and social cohesion is expected to ate and social cohesion is expected to disappear. . . . However, empirical evidence on the extent to which people in the throes of a disaster react with self-regarding or with other-regarding behavior is scanty.” Fortunately (?), the sinking of the Titanic provides “a quasi-natural field experiment to explore behavior under extreme conditions of life and death.”
Examining data on the social and demographic characteristics of survivors and non-survivors they find that women and children were more likely to survive, other things equal, as well as the wealthy and those in a stronger social network (traveling with family members, or being part of the crew). A morbidly interesting paper, to be sure.
Organizations and Markets 
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Richard Ebeling | 25 March 2011 at 11:11 am
I have not read this article, yet. But years ago I read historian Walter Lord’s famous account of the Titanic, “A Night to Remember.”
What struck me, though having read it so many years ago I don’t recall all the details, was his description of the orderly and “gentlemanly” manner in which virtually all the male passengers behaved. Women and children first; the ship’s orchestra continuing to play on deck; the way that those about to face death attempted, almost to the last, to act in a “civilized” manner.
To the extent that this account was more or less true, it convinced me that that there was something humane and truly dignified in that slightly post-Victorian era.
And it made me wonder if our society was as “civilized” as theirs.
Richard Ebeling
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FC | 26 March 2011 at 6:57 am
I’m disappointed they didn’t use “The Cold Equations” somewhere in the title.
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FC | 26 March 2011 at 7:12 am
Having now read the abstract, I wonder what the authors would say about the extreme examples of shipwreck behavior, the Meduse and the Birkenhead.