IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ratsoc/v23y2011i1p35-49.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who perished on the Titanic? The importance of social norms

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno S. Frey

    (University of Warwick, Switzerland, bruno.frey@econ.uzh.ch)

  • David A. Savage

    (Queensland University of Technology, Australia)

  • Benno Torgler

    (Queensland University of Technology, Australia)

Abstract

This paper seeks to empirically identify what factors make it more or less likely for people to survive in a life-threatening situation. Three factors relate to individual attributes of the persons onboard: physical strength, economic resources, and nationality. Two relate to social aspects : social support and social norms. The Titanic disaster is a life-or-death situation. Otherwise-disregarded aspects of human nature become apparent in such a dangerous situation. The empirical analysis supports the notion that social norms are a key determinant in extreme situations of life or death.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno S. Frey & David A. Savage & Benno Torgler, 2011. "Who perished on the Titanic? The importance of social norms," Rationality and Society, , vol. 23(1), pages 35-49, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:23:y:2011:i:1:p:35-49
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463110396059
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463110396059
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1043463110396059?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Douglas D. Heckathorn, 1989. "Collective Action and the Second-Order Free-Rider Problem," Rationality and Society, , vol. 1(1), pages 78-100, July.
    2. Bossert, Walter & Suzumura, Kotaro, 2007. "Social Norms and Rationality of Choice," Cahiers de recherche 2007-07, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques.
    3. Elster, Jon, 1989. "Social Norms and Economic Theory," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 99-117, Fall.
    4. Emily Chamlee-Wright & Virgil Henry Storr, 2009. "Club Goods and Post-Disaster Community Return," Rationality and Society, , vol. 21(4), pages 429-458, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Savage David A., 2016. "Surviving the Storm: Behavioural Economics in the Conflict Environment," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 22(2), pages 105-129, April.
    2. Jörg Stolz & Anaïd Lindemann & Jean-Philippe Antonietti, 2019. "Sociological explanation and mixed methods: the example of the Titanic," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 1623-1643, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:qut:qubewp:wp014 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. José M Galán & Maciej M Łatek & Seyed M Mussavi Rizi, 2011. "Axelrod's Metanorm Games on Networks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(5), pages 1-11, May.
    3. Mattos, Enlinson & Rocha, Fabiana & Toporcov, Patricia, 2013. "Programas de incentivos fiscais são eficazes? Evidência a partir da avaliação do impacto do programa nota fiscal paulista sobre a arrecadação de ICMS," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 67(1), April.
    4. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8651 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Lombardi, Michele & Yoshihara, Naoki, 2013. "Natural implementation with partially honest agents in economic environments," MPRA Paper 48294, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Purkayastha, Dipankar, 2006. "Norms of reciprocity and human capital formation in a poor patriarchal household," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 72-82, February.
    7. Marina Bianchi, 1994. "Evolutionary metaphors and the justification of economic efficiency," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 17-29, Spring.
    8. Kimbrough, E.O. & Vostroknutov, A., 2012. "Rules, rule-following and cooperation," Research Memorandum 053, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    9. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2013_013 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Lars Kunze & Nicolai Suppa, 2014. "Bowling Alone or Bowling at All? The Effect of Unemployment on Social Participation," Ruhr Economic Papers 0510, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    11. repec:fgv:epgrbe:v:67:n:1:a:5 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Leibbrandt, Andreas & Lynham, John, 2018. "Does the allocation of property rights matter in the commons?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 201-217.
    13. Bellemare, Charles & Kroger, Sabine, 2007. "On representative social capital," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 183-202, January.
    14. David Bruner & Michael Jones & Michael McKee & Christian Vossler, 2015. "Tax Reporting Behavior: Underreporting Opportunities and Prepopulated Tax Returns," Working Papers 15-11, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    15. Andrew G. Walder, 1994. "Collective Behavior Revisited," Rationality and Society, , vol. 6(3), pages 400-421, July.
    16. Craig A. Depken & Peter A. Groothuis & Mark C. Strazicich, 2020. "Evolution Of Community Deterrence: Evidence From The National Hockey League," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(2), pages 289-303, April.
    17. Michael W. Macy, 1997. "Identity, Interest And Emergent Rationality," Rationality and Society, , vol. 9(4), pages 427-448, November.
    18. Traxler, Christian, 2010. "Social norms and conditional cooperative taxpayers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 89-103, March.
    19. Drouvelis, Michalis & Marx, Benjamin M., 2022. "Can charitable appeals identify and exploit belief heterogeneity?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 631-649.
    20. Erixson, Oscar & Ohlsson, Henry, 2014. "Estate division: Equal sharing as choice, social norm, and legal requirement," Working Paper Series 2014:1, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    21. Latukha, M. & Veselova, A. & Selivanovskikh, L. & Artukh, E. & Mitskevich, E., 2016. "Re-thinking the role of talent management in a firm’s performance: Talent management practices and absorptive capacity," Working Papers 6442, Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University.
    22. Ramcilovic-Suominen, Sabaheta & Hansen, Christian P., 2012. "Why some forest rules are obeyed and others violated by farmers in Ghana: Instrumental and normative perspective of forest law compliance," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 46-54.
    23. Muller,Miriam & Jaen,Martha, 2020. "Complex Decisions between Care and Paid Work : A Qualitative Study on the Demand for ChildcareServices in Mexico City," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9452, The World Bank.
    24. Liu, Yanju & Lu, Hai & Veenstra, Kevin, 2014. "Is sin always a sin? The interaction effect of social norms and financial incentives on market participants’ behavior," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 289-307.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:23:y:2011:i:1:p:35-49. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.