The time it takes to do the right thing

I came across a article about the difference between the Lusitania and the Titanic ship wrecks. Scientist now believe that more women and children suvived the Titanic simply because the Titanic took more time to sink. The Titanic sank in 2 hours and 40 minutes however the Lusitania went down in 18 minutes. Australian scientist analyzed the two ships survival records. They were able to properly compare the two ships because although the ships sank for different reasons they had similiar numbers and types of passengers. To me this reflects responsible research where scientists compare situations and that can actually be prepared.

Scientists analyzed the data on surviving passengers based on age, sex, and cabin class. They found that on the titanic women were 50% more likely to survive than on the Lusitania. The cabin class also meant differing things for the Lusitania and the Titanic. On the Lusitania whether or not the passenger was first class had no effect on survival. On the titanic however first class passengers were 44% more likely to survive. Much like in the Titanic movie women and children were put in the lifeboats first. This explains the study's findings that 31% of the children survived on the Titanic, much more than those on the Lusitania.

The study concluded that in emergency situations were time is a huge factor people think about themselves first rather than trying to create organized safety plans. The general consensus being that "coordinating social norms takes time." This study can prove to be important in understanind social behaviors in all kinds of disaster situations. These understandings can apply to anything from terrosit attacks to natural disasters. The study said that social norms take time. With this knowledge evactuation and safety techinques can be created to optimize the most amount of social norms in the least amount of time. This can lead to a totally new way of handling crisises and potentially saving a lot more lives.