We are coming up on the 100th anniversary of the launching (today, I believe) and the sinking, two weeks, later of R.M,S.Titanic, then currently the largest vessel afloat. During the sinking, something like 1500 passengers and crew were lost, while some 700 were placed in the inadequate number of lifeboats and were eventually saved.

The behavior of those involved was basically orderly and, indeed, heroic. Captain Smith went down with his ship and the final concert of the ship's band as the vessel sank is legendary. There were cowardly acts (apparently one dude donned women's clothing in an attempt to game the "women and children first" ethic) and it would be naive to think there wouldn't have been some violence, but fighting, struggling, and panic seem to have been minimized.

Somehow this seems contrary to the "Mad Max"model of behavior in a disaster, in which ravaging hordes will break into your carefully prepped stockade and help themselves when things go south.

The Titanic gives us a large scale event among perfect strangers in which many people pretty clearly chose "death before dishonor" and gave up their chance at survival in a real life situation, not a hypothetical exercise.

Not every disaster is the same, and circumstances will vary. We certainly are capable of extreme violence, just like all the other top of the food chain predators, but, in general, isn't the Titanic model the more likely for humans in a disaster?

I certainly don't have a definitive answer, but this is food for thought.

In my opinion, one of the learnings from the Japan Earthquake/Tsunami is that people actually react to adversity by helping each other in a large scale disaster. Gives you hope for the human race.

My understanding is that the James Cameron movie "Titanic" grossly misrepresented the behavior of the passengers, specifically the "rich" ones in an effort to play up a false populist theme. More lies from Hollywood.

From what I've read on various disasters, this seems to be true. By and large, people tend to be helpful during disasters.

However, one does have to keep in mind that, just because something is the norm, doesn't mean it's always guaranteed. There are also well documented instances of people taking advantage of disaster scenarios. There are also those who, essentially, do nothing. Neither contribute nor take advantage. They just remain in a shocked state.

There's an old military saying that goes something like, "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet."

While that's kind of extreme, it makes a lot of sense. Even if people appear to be friendly, you should never put yourself in a position to be taken advantage of. Vigilance and Preparedness go hand in hand.

after living and growing up in southern california, and after having seen the watts riots as a young 'un, and having seen the thin line that separates the "civilized" society from the "uncivilized" break down so quickly during the rodney king riots in los angeles, and watching how quickly a sports celebration - or dissatisfaction with the home town losing team - degenerates into civil disobedience, i'm afraid we're not as civilized as we think we are.
be nice, but as the man in the post above says "be prepared to kill everyone we meet."
sad, but true.

Before we get all wispy and sympathetic for the White Star Line and their efforts to rescue passengers, we should stipulate that

- the ship sailed with lifeboat capacity for barely half of the passengers and crew: if the Titanic had sailed full, it would have had capacity for only one third.
- the crew were inadequately trained to conduct an evacuation of the ship. For instance, they didn't know how many to put in the lifeboats, so many boats launched partially full.
- of the 3 classes of passengers, third class passengers were left largely on their own during evacuation: only first and to some extent second class passengers received any organized assistance at abandoning ship. As a consequence, deaths among third class passengers were higher than among first and second. This rate of survival ran right down to the "women and children first" myth - women and children in third class died in far greater percentages than in first or second class.

I'm certain there were some selfless acts of self-sacrifice, and some others of cowardice or selfish attempts to survive in someone else's place in a lifeboat. These were forced upon them however by the White Star Line, who criminally set the ship on course without the minimal means to rescue passengers and crews. Passengers were doomed to their fate by inadequate preparations.

Before we get all wispy and sympathetic for the White Star Line and their efforts to rescue passengers, we should stipulate that




The point is the behavior of those passengers, and the apparent dominance of selfless acts over selfish acts on their part. The failings of the White Star Line are manifold, as you correctly summarize. That would be a great subject for another thread. How much litigation arose out of this tragedy? That doesn't seem to be discussed very much.

I would inquire, is this picture of apparent altruism correct, or has the picture become distorted over the years? It seems like pretty exceptional behavior to me.

My understanding is that many of the international regulations regarding numbers of lifeboats relative to passengers, crew training, etc came about as a result of the Titanic disaster. At the time there were few if any international regulations, and White Star was in complience with British regulations of the era for passenger liners. See, for example, "Changes in safety practices following the Titanic disaster".

Just speaking as a PhD Social Psychology student, stress reduces the cognitive resources available in an emergency situation. Some people handle it better than others, and maybe have more cognitive resources or had experienced previous emergencies which would have served as an "inoculation" for stress. This would mean that they handled the stress better and did not lose as many cognitive resources as others. The behavior of the captain also aided in lowering the level of stress for many of the passengers. He displayed calm and concern and so calmed the passengers he came into contact with. There is another dynamic at work where people look to the behavior of others as a cue to how they behave. Early in the disaster, when nobody knew what was going on, they were behaving more like a herd, waiting for the triggers for any other behaviors such as panic or orderly evacuation.

Addressing bsmith, when people are in groups, especially large ones, and they engage in some sort of ritualistic behavior, such as chanting at a game, they tend to feel more a part of the group and they lose their individual identity to an extent. Then when certain triggers occur, such as one person instigating violence against another group or breaking windows, they all feel the urge to join. It is even worse when you have some real instigators who elicit a response from law enforcement, which polarizes the group against the police and can cause more violence. At this point, more level headed people will try to escape, removing any positive influence from the group further radicalizing it.

There are observable and provable reasons for much of this behavior, but much depends on a great number of possible variables. This makes predicting behavior of large groups difficult unless you can identify some of the possible influences or catalysts. This is also why leadership and a strong individuality can influence things in the less violent direction.

Just my two cents (or maybe 10 cents in this case.

There seems to be some disagreement about what actually happened. I guess the sources are the words of the survivors because there was no video or audio recordings(?). The vast majority of the folks writing the history of the Titanic are first class passengers, right? I'd be interested to hear the raw words of various survivors, not an author's interpretation. I'd like to know their backgrounds (e.g., first/second/third class). Is there such a source?

I can't imagine the third class passengers would give a description like the one in the original post, but I could be wrong. Either way, their ordeal is no less important. Also, if the first class passengers were enabled to behave orderly and heroically due to 1,500 people being forced to die, then that's a contrived perspective of "orderly and heroic". That's cheating on the test. Then again, this website isn't "Equipped to be a Hero".