(Digital Vision)
A good idea from a reader named Mark Mize:
Reading this article, I was immediately reminded of the section in SuperFreakonomics regarding altruism:
I think the choice to recline one’s airplane seat is a great example of natural altruistic tendencies. Reclining one’s own seat increases his comfort, but only at the expense of the person directly behind him. Then, in order for that person behind to increase his own comfort level back to what it was before the person in front reclined back into his space, he must now recline back into the space of the person behind him at the expense of that person’s comfort, and so on. An experiment observing this behavior may be a better measuring stick of natural human altruism tendencies than the Dictator game or similar games since the behavior could be observed in real time and without the behaviors associated with knowing one is being observed in a laboratory.
Here, from the Washington Post, is an excerpt from the article in question:
Before things got out of hand, it was a typical annoyance that happens once a flight gets airborne: A passenger hit the recline button and sent his seat intimately close to the lap of the guy sitting behind him.
What followed wasn’t typical at all: a smack to the head, peacemakers diving about the cabin to intervene and a pair of Air Force F-16 fighter jets scrambling into the night skies over Washington.
It happened late Sunday, just after a United Airlines Boeing 767 bound for Ghana with 144 passengers took off from Dulles International Airport.Not long after the 10:44 p.m. departure for the overnight flight, the offending seat was lowered into the offended lap, and a fight ensued. A flight attendant and another passenger jumped in between, said sources familiar with the incident who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details.
The pilot has complete authority over the aircraft, a United spokesman said, and he decided to return to Dulles to sort things out rather than continue the transatlantic flight to Ghana when he was unsure of the scope of the problem.
Any academic researchers out there looking for a great empirical experiment in altruistic behavior? Summer’s a great time to observe the seat-reclining wars …
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Heck, I’m only 5’8″, but a bit overweight, and I can’t stand the seat in front of me being reclined. I do not recline mine, period.
Delta lost me as a customer when I tried to use my laptop but could hardly get it open enough to see the screen. Then the moron in front of me declined his seat and nearly broke the screen due to it being trapped between the seat and the table.
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Stuff like this shows why autistics are the next stage of human evolution.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I’m also in the “never recline” club, unless it’s an overnight flight. I’ve asked people in seats in front of me not to recline before (I’m 5’9″, but with long legs that already touch the seat in front) and all but one has accomodated. I just don’t get why anyone would recline knowing how uncomfortable they’re making someone else for a really marginal increase in comfort for themselves.
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They make the seats such that they recline. I buy space for that seat. Given that it reclines, I own the full space that seat is able to take up. I don’t know why people have the perception that the “recline-able” area belongs to anyone other than the seat owner.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Frankly, I don’t think the passenger cabin of airplanes is really well thought out. It seems to me that we could transport more people in better comfort if we traveled laying down than seated. Of course it would take clever design to make it easy to enter and exit the upper and lower bunks.
Of course, the ultimate solution is to have travel pods, so you can just just check yourself in with your luggage and get a sedative shot and they load you into your pod. No talky seat mates, no crying babies, no indigestible airline ‘food’. You awake at your destination refreshed. Red eye flights become the most popular and no one will have to waste their waking hours travelling. The next best thing to the Star Trek transporter. Almost as good as staying home.
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Yes, but I also bought my seat that includes the space in front of me. The problem is that the airlines have double-sold this space. That being the case, the comfort gained by the recliner is significantly less than the discomfort and hassle experienced by the person behind them, unless they are a child or exceptionally small, so I would argue that nobody should recline. I never do and I do my best to ensure that the people in front of me can’t either. Immature? Maybe, but if the person in front of me is inconsiderate enough to recline in the first place then we’re even.
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It really depends on where you are in the flight. If the house lights are down then reclining is a-ok. If there is a meal or drink service in progress then it isn’t. When people recline their seats in front of me while I have a meal or drink on my tray table I just push the seat right back up. Don’t do that.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I guess I have a different experience than a lot of people (I’m 5’ 0” standing at attention) but it’s only a very small inconvenience for me if the passenger in front of me reclines. It obviously is more of an increase in comfort to them than a decrease to me (a net increase between us), so I say go for it. I didn’t realize people saw it as such an intrusion.
Then again, the whole process of air travel has a way of generating huge pools of subconscious stress that amplifies every minor inconvenience.
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These statements assume that total personal space is the only measure of comfort: “Reclining one’s own seat increases his comfort, but only at the expense of the person directly behind him. Then, in order for that person behind to increase his own comfort level back to what it was before the person in front reclined back into his space, he must now recline back into the space of the person behind him at the expense of that person’s comfort, and so on.”
I used to travel a lot with a guy who was 6’2″, and his legs didn’t fit in the space in front of him; he would have to let them bow out to the side (into my space). He whined about people who put their seat back, but it didn’t actually make a difference. At the height of his knees, the small angular distance of seat rotation only translate to putting the seat at that height a few millimeters closer, and _it never made the difference between touching him or not_.
I feel sorry that he didn’t fit, but his blame was misplaced; it didn’t have anything to do with the person in front of him reclining their seat.
At the level of the head, the angular rotation does translate into a few centimeters. He didn’t like that their head was closer to him, but it never touched him, and I think it was selfish to want extra unused space between him and their head just because he didn’t like being near people.
The little bit that those chairs recline just don’t make much difference in space utilization.
But they make a huge difference in back comfort for a bad back, or any back.
… especially since those chairs are so badly designed if you don’t happen to be in the height range they designed them for…the concave curves sit where the convex ones are supposed to and vice versa. That little bit of reclining allow gravity to pull the weight of one’s torso into the chair, instead of putting it all into that one vertebra that’s bent all funny from its neighbors (thanks to the shape of the chair).
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There used to be an underground market in clips that would prevent the person in front from lowering the seat back. Dunno if they still exist or work.
The airlines could eliminate a lot of friction if they just allowed one or two clicks back, instead of the in-your-face recline found on many planes these days. I rarely move my seat back more than a click.
True what the poster above says about the actual space lost, but it is a visual personal space intrusion that adds even more misery to flying.
I am good at spotting the jerks and the clueless (look for the baseball caps) and will keep my knee right up against the seat after takeoff. Also, a few good “supporting” pulls on the headrest whilst rising to go to the restroom or a hip shot to the seat helps me feel better, at least. That sort of thing probably started the altercation in this news story, though.
Think it’s most effective to immediately ask the seat invader to pull it back, perhaps preceded by a little yelp of surprise, explaining that the thing is right in your lap … as if, perhaps, the seat is malfunctioning and the problem is not their fault.
And nothing beats a roving eye that can get you into another seat arrangement and out of harm’s way once the airliner door is shut.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I see I’m not the first tall guy to speak up (6’3″). As another poster suggested I tend to just “suffer in silence” when someone puts the seat down in front of me, and I almost never put the seat behind me down because I feel guilt about doing so. In my opinion, airplane seats should simply not be able to recline unless the row spacing is enough to comfortably accommodate passengers above 6’6″ or so.
As much as I can’t stand having my knees jammed into the seat in front of me (they usually are regardless of the position of the seat in front of me anyway), I’ll confess that I would prefer that to being crowded out by the arms of a passenger of large girth in the seat next to me.
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