10:32am Tuesday 2nd March 2010
WOMEN and children came first on the Titanic but not on the Lusitania – where selfish survival instincts took over after the ship was torpedoed by a German Uboat, research has shown.
The difference in passenger behaviour can be explained by the speed at which the two disasters struck, and sheds light on human social psychology, say scientists.
Four days into its maiden voyage to New York, on April 14, 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic with the loss of 1,517 lives.
Three years later, after the outbreak of the First World War, the Lusitania was sunk by a U-boat on a voyage from New York to Liverpool. A total of 1,198 people died.
In the case of the Titanic, it really was a case of “women and children first”
in the best maritime tradition.
A study of the disaster showed that women, children and people accompanying a child were more likely to survive than men and passengers without children.
Of the 2,207 passengers and crew on board the ship when it set sail from Southampton, all but 690 perished.
Children on the Titanic had a 14.8 per cent higher probability of surviving than adults.
In contrast, fit passengers aged 16 to 35 stood the greatest chance of surviving on the Lusitania.
After striking the iceberg, the Titanic took two hours and 40 minutes to sink. The Lusitania disappeared in only 18 minutes.
“On the Lusitania, selfish behaviour dominated; on the Titanic, social norms and social status dominated, which contradicts standard economics,” said scientists, led by Bruno Frey, from the University of Zurich, in Switzerland.
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