Who would survive the Titanic today? A classroom exercise

We describe a classroom exercise that emphasises the subjectivity and compl exity associated with generalizing psychological knowledge to different poi nts in time. The exercise used a well-known historical event: the sinking o f the Titanic. Specifically, students attempted to determine if previously obtained psychological knowledge (i.e., the characteristics of the survivor s) would generalize to the present. Students indicated they found the exerc ise interesting, and they recommended it for future classes.