Passengers throw scandals, threaten flight attendants and each other, and even arrange fights. It is believed that the reason is stress, fatigue, crowding or alcohol … However, it seems that there is also an unobvious reason — the presence of different classes of cabins on the plane.
Management specialists Katherine DeCelles and Michael Norton (Michael Norton) studied the statistics on unrest on board the aircraft of one of the major airlines and found a curious pattern — if the aircraft had a superior cabin (first class and / or business class), economy class passengers were more likely to cause scandals and riots — especially if they had to pass first class seats when boarding and first-hand observe more successful and wealthy passengers flying in much more comfortable conditions.
Research shows that experiencing inequality and perceived injustice is bad for our physical and mental health and well-being. Therefore, it is not so surprising that the mere presence of a first-class aircraft statistically increases the likelihood of unrest on board no less than a 10-hour flight delay.
First class passengers are more prone to scandals. Perhaps the awareness of their exclusivity and superiority makes them forget about good manners.
Interestingly, first-class passengers on such flights were also more prone to scandals. Perhaps the awareness of their exclusivity and superiority makes them forget about good manners. In general, such incidents on board aircraft with several classes of cabins occurred four times more often than those flights where all passengers were in equal conditions. Other problems also contributed — crowded cabin, flight delays, flight duration.
What kind of disturbances did the passengers arrange? Most often, it was about strong alcohol intoxication, scandals with manifestations of aggression, disobedience to the requirements of flight attendants. Sometimes passengers tried to smoke. Occasionally, there were also cases of obscene acts of a sexual nature and drug use. Men were about three times more likely to riot than women.
The researchers recommend that airlines try to organize the aircraft cabins and the landing process itself in such a way that passengers of different classes, if possible, do not contact each other and do not see other cabins.
For more information, see K. DeCelles, M. Norton «Physical and situational inequality on airplanes predicts air rage», PNAS, April 2016.