STOCKHOLM – Two Swedish researchers said Thursday that when it comes to sinking ships, male chivalry is “a myth” and more men generally survive such disasters than women and children.

Economists Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixon of Uppsala University also showed in their 82-page study that captains and their crew are 18.7 percentage points more likely to survive a shipwreck than their passengers.

“Our findings show that behavior in life-and-death situation is best captured by the expression ‘every man for himself’,” the authors wrote.

The researchers analyzed 18 of the world’s most famous maritime disasters, ranging from the HMS Birkenhead that grounded in the Indian Ocean in 1852 to the MV Bulgaria tourist ship that sank on Russia’s Volga River last year.

Analyzing passenger lists, logs and registers, Elinder and Erixon found that men actually have a distinct survival advantage.

About 15,000 people died in the 18 accidents. Only 17.8 percent of the women survived compared with 34.5 percent of the men.

The report said the Titanic, which sank in the North Atlantic in the early morning of April 15, 1912, was an exception to their findings, mainly because its captain, Edward Smith, threatened to shoot men unless they yielded to women for lifeboat seats. Capt. Smith went down with his ship.

Of the 1,496 people who died with the Titanic, 73.3 percent of the women and 50.4 percent of the children survived, compared with only 20.7 percent of the men.

Capt. Christer Lindvall, president of The International Federation of Shipmasters’ Associations, said he was not surprised about the findings, but stressed that there are no rules stating that women and children should be rescued first.