Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 1

Gender Difference for the Titanic Boat Tragedy Survivors.

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 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

ABSTRACT

This article is an examination of the gender difference of the Titanic tragedy survivors. It

was like a great massacre back on 15th April 1912 when the Titanic sank leading to the death of

1502 out of the 2224 passengers and crew. It is of great pleasure to verify the difference in

gender of the survivors. This is done using a statistical method when a null hypothesis state that

there is no difference in the mean survival skills owned by different the gender while alternative

hypothesis state that there is a difference in the mean survival skills owned by a different gender.

This article tries to examine the gender difference for the survivors.

One reason as to why it might be interesting to consider the titanic tragedy is that it can

help to improve on some areas if possible. Like before the incident of the titanic, there was no

proper implementation of the safety precautions like safety wears but immediately after the

incident it led to the implementation of safety wears in the sea.

To investigate this, we use a t-test statistic. Here we investigate a hypothesis for the

difference between the mean survival skills possessed by males and females. If the difference

between the two means is 0 then we accept the null hypothesis and reject the alternative

hypothesis but in case the difference in the two means is not 0 then we reject the null hypothesis

in favor of the alternative hypothesis.

After investigating the difference in the means, we again investigate to confirm our result

by confidence interval where if 0 falls within the interval that we will get then we reject the
 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

alternative hypothesis and accept the null hypothesis. Otherwise, if 0 does not fall within the

confidence interval then we reject the null hypothesis in favor of the alternative hypothesis.

INTRODUCTION

Based on the data presented back on 15th April 1912, the great Titanic collided head-on

with an iceberg and this led to the dismiss of 1502 passengers out of 2224. Mathematically 722

crew and passengers survived. We will verify if there is any difference in gender using a

statistical method. The data analysis will be based on the data that we had 722 survivors from the

incident.

It is said that the sinking of the titanic was a result of no better safety regulations and this

tragedy hence led to the improvement of the safety measures. It was evident that there some

groups of people who had higher chances of surviving the sinking than others, hence the need to

know the more likely survived whether male or female.

To investigate such a statistical quest, we can use different statistical distributions. The

most common and use is the t-distribution, others that can as well be used for accurate results are

chi-square, f-distribution, and also standard normal test. Every test differs in regards to the

sample distribution under investigation. When one uses a chi-square distribution, we use a chi-

square table, also if one uses f-distribution we use an f-table to evaluate the critical value and if

an individual uses at-distribution then we use a t-table to evaluate the critical value. After

evaluating the critical value, we then can evaluate the hypothesis and this is what is expected in

this article.
 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

In our case, we will use a t-distribution to investigate. More precisely we will use a two-

sided t-test as this will provide a more accurate result than if we use a one-sided. We will be

using a two-sided because we only need to know if there is a mean difference. But if in case we

would like to investigate which mean is greater or smaller than the other then we would prefer

the use of a one-sided t-test.

DATA AND METHODS.

To examine if there is a difference in gender for those passengers and crew who survived

we used the "Titanic Dataset". It is a sample of 722 survivors out of the possible 2224. The data

is official and is obtained from the "Titanic Dataset" hence we take the data to be accurate as the

non-survivors were counted if not twice then more as to provide accurate, valid, and relevant

data for analysis purposes.

From the data we have at hand, we can compute other statistics using a t-distribution. T-

distribution uses t-test statistics, a p-value, and degree of freedom to calculate the critical value.

Once we have a critical value, we can then compare the difference between the two means. If in

case there will be a significant difference then we accept the null hypothesis and otherwise, we

reject it. If in case there is no significant difference, that is, the difference is 0 then we accept the

null hypothesis and reject the alternative hypothesis.

Apart from this concept, we can as well test the hypothesis using the critical interval

usually at 95%. Using the 95% significance level we calculate the level and the assumption will

be that, if 0 is part of the interval then we accept the null hypothesis and reject the alternative
 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

hypothesis. If 0 is not part of the interval then we reject the null hypothesis and accept the

alternative hypothesis.

The data has 722 survived men and women on the Titanic tragedy. To make it a success

we would consider two variables that is sex and the survival skill that each gender had before the

tragedy. These two variables are picked as they are of more importance than other variables like

age and even the fare that each passenger and crew paid for the journey. The particular variables

that we are interested in are:

Sex: This category has two subcategories as Female and Male.

Survival skills: A continuous numerical variable of the skills owned required for

survival. This is reported on a scale of 1-10 and it was different in males and females. The

minimum scaling for the skills a person possesses is 1 and the maximum is 10.

In our investigation, we consider the survival skill because we assume that an individual

with more "swimming skills" for example can easily swim to the bank of the sea. On other hand,

those without swimming skills were not likely to survive. And we have scaled the skills that an

individual may possess on a scale of 1 to 10 (an individual with the minimum skills be rated at a

scale of 1 and an individual with maximum skill be rated at 10). This is without considering

factors like age.

To find it more precisely we first conduct a side-by-side box plot. Out of the Titanic

dataset, we plot a side-by-side box plot in excel. The side-by-side boxplot of Titanic Dataset

displays the difference in the median skills and skills difference between a female and male
 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

group. The side-by-side box plot displayed below displays that the median of survival skills

possessed by the female gender that boarded the Titanic boat is less than the median skills for the

male who boarded.

The Titanic was divided into classes. We considered the statistic from the Titanic dataset

and plot a bar of the passenger against whether they survived or not. We can note that lost their

life during the incident and only a few survived. The crew survived most than as compared to

each class. Class 1 passengers mostly survived as shown below:

From the above graph, we can tell that the passengers had different chances of survival

given the class. The first class had higher chances of survival than the other. The third class had

minimal chances of survival. The crew had little percentage of survival.

By computing the difference in the mean for the survival skills possessed by women and

survival skills possessed by men in the Titanic Dataset and using it to make some statistical

inference, we would be answering the question at hand here- that whether there is a gender

difference who survived out of the titanic tragedy which occurred on 15 th April 1912. The
 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

parameter involved is mean survival skills in men (µ.male) and mean survival skills in females

(µ.female).

The parameter used in the analysis are:

µ.Male = mean survival skills possessed by men in the Titanic.

µ.Female = mean survival skills possessed by women in the Titanic.

We, therefore, compute some two vital hypotheses:

Null hypothesis (Ho)

Ho= There is no difference between the mean survival skills of females and males.

Ho= µ.Male - µ.Female = 0

Alternative hypothesis(Hα)

Hα = there is a difference between the mean survival skills of females and males.

Hα = µ.Male - µ.Female ≠0

We assume that a t-distribution will be appropriate for the analysis of the sample

distribution and hence use it. To get the difference in the means we then proceed with the t-test

for the two samples. The most appropriate is Welch’s Two-sided t-test. We chose Welch's Two-

sided t-test as an appropriate distribution over one-sided t-test because we do not need to

compare the means in both directions, that is, whether larger or smaller rather we need to
 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

investigate if the mean is greater than the other and that is all. We will need a confidence interval

of 95% that the difference in the mean lies within a confidence interval calculated. This,

therefore, means that we shall use a confidence level of α= 0.05.

Hence from the test statistic above, we exclaim that t-test statistics is 6.239, the p-value

as 5.656e-10 and the degree of freedom (df) is 1561.768. The 95% confidence level are 0.286

and 7.0489. The sample estimates as; mean in the male group is 51.815 and the mean in the

female group as 31.776. When the confident level α= 0.05 we can determine the critical value

interval for the two-sided as -1.97 and 1.97 as in the figure below.

Critical Values for the t-Distribution Model

ANALYSIS

For the t-test value which is 6.23, we can note that it is away from the mean of 0. It falls

outside some critical value of the range 1.97. This hence implies that the sample is unlikely to
 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

significantly different from the population. From the critical value we have at hand we, therefore,

conclude that |t-test statistic| of |6.23| is > 1.967 (when α=0.05). We can therefore reject the null

hypothesis since the difference in the mean for the survival skills in men and women is not

conforming to 0. This implies that we accept our alternative hypothesis that the difference

between the two prevailing means is not 0.

The sample mean of survival skills in males is 51.815 and the sample mean of survival

skills in females is 31.776. There is a difference of 20.039. The 95% interval obtained from the

sample statistic are 0.286 and 7.049 and it is evident that 0 is not part of the interval. Hence a

shred of greater evidence as to why we reject the null hypothesis in favor of the alternative

hypothesis. The two difference between the two means is not 0 hence we reject the null

hypothesis.

Regardless of other factors more men survived than women as seen below:
 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

There might be some limitation in the results obtained as the survival skills that an

individual may possess is not only affected by gender. Rather it can also be affected by the age

of the individual which was not considered.

In our statistical investigation, we have only considered the survival skills of men and

women but never considered other factors like the age of the passenger and crew that boarded the

titan. If incase we considered these other factors may be or not, we could have gotten a different

result. We can conclude that this result might be erroneous or not and that the errors can only be

minimized but cannot be entirely prevented.

Another factor that may have been considered is the fare that each passenger and crew

paid for the trip. This may have been of little help to investigate the difference but maybe it

would have been helpful at some point and may have resulted in a different result. Another

minor variable that may have been considered is race. Naturally, the different race has a different

percentage to persist or resist. In the titanic boat, there were people of different races and maybe

that might have affected the rate of survival of an individual. The rate of resisting hardship is

also different in a different race.

 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

By considering the survival skills in different gender in the titanic during the tragedy we

can see that there is a great difference between the mean of the survival skills in males and the

mean survival skills in females. This difference is even significantly enough for one to conclude

that there was some difference in the number of males and number of females that survived but

by considering other factors may be the result would have had more precise.

Summarizing the findings, there is a difference in the mean survival skills possessed by

men and women. It further points out that men had more survival skills than women and this

implies that men had a higher chance of surviving the tragedy. Further analyzing the result, we

can therefore assume that from 722 passengers and crew that survived the tragedy, a greater

percentage was taken by males and the female taking the lesser percentage. We, therefore,

conclude our analysis that there was a gender difference for the titanic tragedy survivors with the

male taking the higher portion as the rest being the female.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion at a significance level of 5%, there is a significance level between the mean

survival skills in males and mean survival skills in women in the passenger and the crew that

boarded the titanic before the tragedy. We can as well conclude that at 95% confidence interval

the average survival skills in male is 0.286 to 7.0489 survival skills more than those for the

women who boarded the titanic. This difference is not too large and this result can be realistic.

The difference is significant enough to be realistic and hence we can conclude that out of

the 722 passengers and crew that survived the tragedy we can get that men had the highest

number compared to females. We have considered the survival skills of the individual and from
 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

that, we can make our assumption since back then there were no safety measures like a life jacket

that could have helped an individual to survive if not for the personal skills that one possesses.

By the two variables: sex and survival skills we conclude that there was a significant

difference between the mean of survival skills in men and the mean of survival skills in females.

On a clear note, more male survived the tragedy than the female. Contrary to the finding other

limitations accompany the findings. Some other vital factors like race, fare an individual

passenger and crew paid for the journey and the age of different individuals were not considered.

The race of an individual might affect the survival skills an individual might possess either

negatively or positively. The age of an individual can also affect the survival skill possessed by

an individual passenger either negatively or positively.

The sinking of the titanic boat was due to head-on bombardment with an iceberg but was

it that there was sufficient safety equipment, many more would have survived. It was due to a

lack of enough safety equipment like life jackets that many did not survive. After the incident,

the government improved the safety measure in the ocean. The tragedy led to improved safety

wears in the sea. We cannot, therefore, conclude that the tragedy was beneficial as it led to the

loss of life but if the caution was taken right before the incident, more people would have

survived.

In conclusion, by considering the survival skills that an individual that boarded the titanic

had and not considering other factors like age, we get that the mean survival skills in male were

much higher than the survival skills in females and hence we can conclude that men had higher

chances of using the skills that they possessed and had higher chances of survival than females.
 Gender Difference for the Titanic Tragedy Survivors 2

In other words, out of the 722 survivors, the greater percentage were male victims and females

taking the lesser percentage. Hence there is a difference in the gender for the survivors of the

titanic tragedy back on 15th April 1912.