URL:http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18592-women-and-children-first-how-long-have-you-got.html
Quote:
If the ship is sinking, do you save yourself or risk your life to save others? The answer, it seems, depends on how long the sinking takes. If there's enough time, you can switch from adrenalin-driven self-preservation to conscience-driven self-sacrifice.
The insights come from a new comparison of survival data from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 with the loss of 1517 lives out of 2207, and the fateful torpedoing of the Lusitania three years later, which killed 1198 passengers out of 1949.
The main difference between the two sinkings was time: it took 2 hours and 40 minutes for the Titanic to go down, while the Lusitania sank in just 18 minutes. The result: a huge difference in survivor profiles.
On the Lusitania, survival favoured able-bodied men aged between 16 and 35, whose probability of surviving was 7.9 per cent higher than that for all remaining passengers over 35 years old. On the Titanic, in contrast, the same group of men were 6.5 per cent more likely to die than their elders. Children were 30.9 per cent more likely to survive on the Titanic, compared with passengers over 35, while on the Lusitania children had no better survival chance....
If the ship is sinking, do you save yourself or risk your life to save others? The answer, it seems, depends on how long the sinking takes. If there's enough time, you can switch from adrenalin-driven self-preservation to conscience-driven self-sacrifice.
The insights come from a new comparison of survival data from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 with the loss of 1517 lives out of 2207, and the fateful torpedoing of the Lusitania three years later, which killed 1198 passengers out of 1949.
The main difference between the two sinkings was time: it took 2 hours and 40 minutes for the Titanic to go down, while the Lusitania sank in just 18 minutes. The result: a huge difference in survivor profiles.
On the Lusitania, survival favoured able-bodied men aged between 16 and 35, whose probability of surviving was 7.9 per cent higher than that for all remaining passengers over 35 years old. On the Titanic, in contrast, the same group of men were 6.5 per cent more likely to die than their elders. Children were 30.9 per cent more likely to survive on the Titanic, compared with passengers over 35, while on the Lusitania children had no better survival chance....
