Gender, social norms, and survival in maritime disasters

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2012-08, Vol.109 (33), p.13220-13224
• Main Authors: Elinder, Mikael, Erixson, Oscar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: altruism; Behavior; Belief & doubt; Child; Children; Disasters; Disasters - statistics & numerical data; discrimination; Female; gender; Gender equity; Helping behavior; homo economicus; human behavior; Humans; leadership; Male; Men; mortality; Oceans; Passengers; Sex Characteristics; Ship accidents & safety; Ships - statistics & numerical data; Shipwrecks; Social Behavior; social impact; Social norms; Social Sciences; Survival; survival rate; Survival rates; Women; World wars
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1207156109

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.”