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Research Article

Gender, social norms, and survival in maritime disasters

Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixson
PNAS first published July 30, 2012; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1207156109
Mikael Elinder
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  • For correspondence: mikael.elinder@nek.uu.se
Oscar Erixson
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  1. Edited by Kenneth Wachter, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved June 29, 2012 (received for review May 2, 2012)

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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.”

  • altruism
  • discrimination
  • homo economicus
  • leadership
  • mortality

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mikael.elinder{at}nek.uu.se.
  • Author contributions: M.E. and O.E. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1207156109/-/DCSupplemental.

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Gender, norms, and survival in maritime disasters
Mikael Elinder, Oscar Erixson
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jul 2012, 201207156; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1207156109

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Gender, norms, and survival in maritime disasters
Mikael Elinder, Oscar Erixson
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jul 2012, 201207156; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1207156109
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