STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- A hundred years after the Titanic sank, two Swedish researchers said Thursday that when it comes to sinking ships, male chivalry is a myth and more men generally survive such disasters than women and children.
Economists Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixon of Uppsala University also showed in their 82-page study that captains and their crew are 18.7 percentage points more likely to survive a shipwreck than their passengers.
"Our findings show that behavior in life-and-death situations is best captured by the expression 'Every man for himself,' " the authors wrote.
The researchers analyzed 18 of the world's most famous maritime disasters, ranging from the HMS Birkenhead that grounded in the Indian Ocean in 1852 to the MV Bulgaria tourist ship that sank on Russia's Volga River last year.
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