This scenario may sound familiar, unfortunately: Your flight begins with poking and prodding by the TSA agent, all to wait for the inevitable delayed departure. Boarding extends the indignities: more waiting while your section is called, followed by a squeeze down the narrow cabin aisle and a lift and jerk of your carry-on up to the overhead. An inelegant flop into the middle seat completes the journey-until the passenger in front shoves her seat back, removing your kneecaps.↵
But new research shows that—in addition to these indignities what irks us when we fly is the demeaning march through the socioeconomic strata as we are herded through the pampered world of first and business class to our humble place in coach. It's difficult to look past the wide, and plush seats filled with passengers given previliged access to board early and sip complimentary champagne.↵
Recent media attention has been devoted to the phenomenon colloquially known as "air rage": a form of antisocial behavior by airplane passengers becoming abusive or unruly, antagonizing crew members and other passengers, and endangering flight safety. Such incidents can be emotionally traumatic for passengers and staff, and expensive and reputationally damaging for airlines. Some might argue that air rage is caused by crowded planes, frustrating delays, and shrinking seats, but a recent study found that both types of inexuality on airplanes - physical (presence of first class) and situational (boarding↵
location) - are more fundamental triggers for antisocial behavior (negative, often aggressive behaviors that are harmful to others). The study concludes that the modern airplane reflects a social microcosm of class -based society, making inequality salient to passengers through both the physical design of the plane (the presence of a first class cabin) and, more subtly, the boarding procloure (whether economy passengers must pass through the first class cabin)