Women and children first? Not so much, study finds

The policy of women and children first on the Titanic led to 70 per cent of these groups being saved, compared with just 20 per cent of the men.

To find out if such behaviour is still the norm, Swedish researchers studied 16 sinkings that have occurred since the 1850s involving around 15,000 passengers and crew.

The Uppsala University team said: ‘By investigating a much larger sample of maritime disasters than has previously been done, we show that the survival rate of women is, on average, only about half that of men.