This is more the truth IMO. They aren't consciously being jerks because they don't have time to have those kinds of thoughts. Which means that throwing criminal charges around months later won't help anything. The only way to change such behavior would be for people to practice serious everything's-on-fire drop-everything-and-run-NOW evacuations regularly. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

Okay, maybe having a short preflight safety briefing that people would actually pay attention to and that told people that would help. Or maybe just scare the crap out of everyone.

Really? What about people paking in handicapped space? Is this because they don't have time to think clearly, or is it because they only carr about themselves? Why would people be different when exiting a plane, as when shopping?

Uhh that has absolutely nothing to do with this situation. What's the point in bringing it up?

My point is that people in unfamiliar situations, particularly stressful and panicked ones, tend to stop thinking and revert to familiar behaviors. For most people, that's gathering their stuff before leaving. Their behavior will never change based on legal penalties applied months later. To get them to behave differently, they have to practice the different behavior beforehand.

Parking is a normal, common activity with no reasonable expectation of panic or stress. People have plenty of time to think about what they're doing. That's why legal penalties are an effective deterrent. I have no idea what would lead you to believe that the situations are comparable.

When shopping, you're not in a smoke-filled tube with alarms blaring while people shout at you.

My point exactly. It's not terror that's the problem. It's people.

My post doesn't support your point at all, and is in fact entirely about the terror inherent in one situation and not the other.

But why would people behave better when under extreme stress vs. under zero stress.

Yeah, they should be charged. The psychological studies you cite could then be entered by the defence and taken into account by the judge.

I'm reading this comment and I'm thinking : you're absolutely right, they should be!

Yet. I have been in plane on fire and I did grab my backpack.. I didn't really act consciously, and somehow I had rationalized the order "everyone, get out now!" as some kind of random evacuation exercises. (European in my teens back then and one of my first flights)

But maybe a few public court cases (even if everybody was acquitted in the end) would cause some people to remember not to grab the bags in the next accident.

Maybe instead of pointless court cases, lots of publicity about correct behavior for the same effect.

> Yet. I have been in plane on fire

Commercial? What happened?

>Should they?

Probably not for the reasons you mentioned.

That doesn't mean it's not a damn good thing to say if you want to be popular on the internet. Hard-line opinions about Bad Things(TM) always win virtue points regardless of whether or not those opinions are well informed.