Study shows Titanic and Lusitania survival differences
The difference in behaviour was due to the speed at which the two maritime disasters struck, researchers said.
The Titanic took more than two hours to sink when it hit an iceberg four days into its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, on 14 April, 1912.
But in the case of the Titanic, it was a case of "women and children first" in the best maritime tradition, according to researchers writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A study of the disaster showed that females, children and people accompanying a child were more likely to survive than males, adults and passengers without children.
Children on the Titanic had a 14.8% higher chance of surviving than adults and a person accompanying a child was 19.6% more likely to survive than someone without a child.