Manners Maketh The Man

I have blogged a good many times on the future of human evolution and hereditary before, so imagine my amusement, when a story about how breeding and social manners, doomed 19th century British men to a watery fate, whilst brash American men avoided that same fate.

According to the story, More British passengers died on the Titanic because they queued politely for lifeboats.

A behavioural economist says data suggests Britons in that era were more inclined to be "gentlemanly" while Americans were more "individualist". Mr David Savage, from Queensland University of Technology, studied the disaster to look at how people react in life and death situations.

He said that in testimonies from inquiries in America and Britain just after the event, there were a lot of statements from women saying their husbands put them on lifeboats.

They then "went to the back of the boat to have a cigar, to stand around and be chummy, while basically the boat went down. There was one gentleman who was rather wealthy... who went back downstairs after he put his wife on the life boat... put on his tuxedo...went back upstairs and smoked... with the idea that if I am going die, I may as well die as a gentleman and well-dressed."

As the Titanic went down ocean liner went down in freezing Atlantic waters during its voyage from Southampton to New York. As it sank, the captain, Edward John Smith, shouted: "Be British, boys, be British," according to witnesses.

Mr Savage said "The American culture was set up to be a more individualist culture and the British culture was more about the gentlemanly behaviour. You've got to remember that this is the Edwardian period when to be a 'gentleman' was the peak of society." Mr Savage also concludes that social norms such as "women and children first" were very strong in British culture and survived even in such an environment.

Ah, so now we know why we lost the will to Empire and have become a colony .... we are too bloody polite.