XtremeSpeakFreely

Women and children first? Only when people have time to get past their fight-or-flight instincts, said a study based on the Titanic and Lusitania disasters.

Passengers on the Titanic, which took two hours and 40 minutes to sink, had enough time to override their selfish drive for survival to help women and kids, according to economists who analyzed the records from both maritime disasters. On the Lusitania, which went down in 18 minutes, selfish behavior dominated, according to a study to be published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Economists since 18th-century Adam Smith have assumed that people behave in ways that are self-interested, said the authors of the study. Recent research has shown that emotions, social goals and a sense of fairness may influence decisions. The analysis of the Titanic and Lusitania disasters shows people need time to enact socially desirable goals.

“Time pressure is a key factor under extreme conditions,” said study author Benno Torgler, an economics professor at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, in an e-mail. “When there is not much time, short-run flight impulses dominate behavior, leading to survival of the fittest. Social norms emerge when there is enough time.”