According to research conducted by the Univerisity of Zurich, American passengers on the doomed Titanic were 15 percent more likely to survive the sinking than were British passengers. Beyond nationality, the study looks at survivability statistics according to class, age, and sex.
In an article in the Daily Mail, the lead researcher Bruno S. Frey surmises, “The British were much more aware of the social norms at the time. They would have been more likely to stand in a queue and wait their turn for boarding the lifeboats than Americans.” That is, Americans were probably pushing and shoving to the front of the line.
Reading this makes me reconsider ever saying to my kid, “Would it kill you to wait your turn?”
Download an abstract of the study here. Interesting stuff.
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