What causes air rage? First class cabins may be to blame

Tight seating, crowded overhead bins, delayed flights and anxiety are all blamed as causes of air rage in economy class cabins, but what about perceptions of social inequality?

That's the surprising conclusion of research conducted by Katherine DeCelles from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and Michael Norton of the Harvard Business School. Their research suggests the modern aircraft cabin is a social microcosm of a class-based society.

Reminding economy class passengers that there is a hierarchy on board, and they're lower down the social and economic ladder, is more likely to spark air rage. Even temporary exposure to class inequality, being literally placed in a class – economy – for the duration of a flight relates to antisocial behaviour.

According to their statistical analysis, an aircraft with a first-class cabin is almost four times more likely to experience incidents of air rage than one without, that is with all economy-class seating

Further, aircraft designs that require economy-class passengers to walk through first-class en route to their seat are more than twice as likely to spark air rage episodes. Perhaps ditching the "class" tag and rebranding economy cabins would change perceptions, and dampen down the anger.