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Emotions can run high in the skies. Why wouldn’t they?

First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic:

Have you listened lately to what Trump is saying? A moral case against the Israeli hostage deal The money always wins. A sort-of-common, very strange cat trick

Fear of Flying

An airplane is an odd environment: You’re buckled into a flying piece of metal hurling through clouds, sitting in very close proximity to strangers, who may need to shuffle into an aisle every time you have to pee. You’re a member of a temporary, placeless mini-society, following both explicit and unwritten rules distinct from those on Earth. No wonder, then, that some people act sort of strange. They cry. They consume gallons of tomato juice. They swear by rituals (ginger ale and a neck pillow, anyone?) to exert a modicum of control in an environment otherwise totally stripped of it. Most flyers are quiet and courteous to their fellow travelers, even if they’re exhausted or cranky, but some—a small but disruptive cohort—use their time in the friendly skies to act out.

Many of the reasons people might act a little snippy on planes are not that deep: They are in a cramped space; they may be hungry or tired or tipsy; they’re trying to squeeze plump bags into limited overhead bins to avoid paying fees. Seats are cramped, and flight cancellations have been frequent. People place a lot of pressure on flights, especially during the holidays, Sheryl Skaggs, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, told me; those who fly rarely, and who “don’t really understand the rules of the road,” may be making a big annual trip, with high expectations in tow. Someone who spent $600 on a flight and waited through three hours of unexplained delays, missing a family dinner as a result, might be a bit cross.

For most people, the inconvenience and indignities of travel mean they act a bit frosty to their seatmate or retreat into noise-canceling headphones. But a small number of airplane miscreants might vape in the bathroom or throw a fit instead. Incidents of “air rage” have gone viral since the pandemic began, with people acting in erratic and sometimes violent ways, often in response to mask mandates. But problematic plane behavior may have deeper roots. Skaggs and a colleague recently published a paper looking at misconduct on planes—including physical violence and verbal conflicts—over a period of 21 years ending in 2020. Even before the pandemic, she told me, reports of bad behavior in the skies ticked up sharply.

Skaggs found that alcohol frequently fueled problems on flights, but the combination of less comfortable conditions for travelers, alongside low transparency from airlines that often cancel or delay flights, also contributed. Flights were historically choreographed to make passengers feel at ease in a strange environment, Alexandra Murphy, the dean of the college of communication at DePaul University, who has studied airline behavior, told me. From its inception, air travel relied on “building in the familiarity of everyday practice,” she said, and airlines soon started serving hot meals and playing movies. (It’s just like being at home, except that after dinner you find yourself in Albuquerque or Charlotte or London.) Flight attendants passed around drinks and spoke in euphemistic language about what could go wrong, helping make the setting feel safer and more normal for passengers.

But in recent years, airlines have cut costs, and it is no longer the norm for domestic flights to serve free hot meals. Increased security measures since 9/11 mean that flight attendants’ role has more visibly morphed into one of surveillance and discipline, in addition to service. Now that planes are more rule-bound, restrictive environments, some of the illusion of normalcy is shattered, Murphy explained. There’s little to distract people from the fact that they are packed in like sardines, hot, and hungry.

Of course, that dynamic doesn’t always lead to bad behavior, nor does it excuse it. Most flights go off with no crises beyond a few tiffs over who gets the armrests. For a lot of people, the worst they might do is burst into tears while watching a movie. (I asked Dr. Albert Rizzo, the chief medical officer for the American Lung Association, about the theory that low cabin-oxygen levels make people more emotional. He said that this explanation is implausible, because “if you have normal lungs, and if you’re just sitting on a plane, the oxygen saturation in your blood should still be at a very normal level.”) Indeed, most people on planes see others behaving politely and gamely follow suit. And those who do take their plane ride as an opportunity to punch someone are likely displaying a continuity in antisocial behavior that might express itself in other settings, too, Robert Sampson, a sociology professor at Harvard, told me.

Air travel has had a bruising few years, and travelers have felt the effects. Flights were a mess last year. Widespread cancellations and delays, coupled with the infamous Southwest fiasco around Christmas, caused major headaches for flyers. Airlines are seeing fewer cancellations this year. But the ongoing perception that air travel is a nightmare may further poison travelers’ moods, Katy Nastro, a spokesperson for the travel company Going, explained to me. “Pack your patience” may not be the coolest truism, she said, but taking everything with a grain of salt—recognizing that your seatmate may be crabby because she missed a connecting flight, or that the person hogging your armrest may have a fear of flying—is a useful approach if you’re looking to have pleasant holiday-week flights. Nastro noted that most people are stressed out and trying to navigate the unwritten rules of air travel. Hopefully, people on your flight won’t pee on other passengers, refuse to stop singing, or have a meltdown in the aisle. But if they do, remember: You won’t be in the air forever.

Related:

There is no good way to travel anywhere in America. There are two types of airport people.

Today’s News

Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal that would release some hostages and include a four-day pause in fighting. North Korea launched a military spy satellite, violating bans by the United Nations. In response, South Korea is planning to resume aerial surveillance on their shared border. Sam Altman has returned to his role as OpenAI’s CEO after a shocking ouster.

Dispatches

Atlantic Intelligence: In many ways, OpenAI’s story is just beginning, Damon Beres says. The turmoil at the company will affect the future of AI development. The Weekly Planet: 2023 just notched its most ominous climate record yet, Zoë Schlanger writes. Up for Debate: Conor Friedersdorf gathers reader responses on what international issues matter most to them. Work in Progress: The OpenAI mess is about one big thing, Derek Thompson writes.

Evening Read

Millennium Images / Gallery Stock

Have Yourself an Early Little Christmas

By Elizabeth Bruenig

All of the arguments that chestnuts should not be roasting on an open fire in the month of November make sense to me: the nagging fact that retailers haul out the proverbial holly before Halloween has fully passed for purely commercial reasons, further cheapening an already materialistic mode of celebration; the dilution of a particularly special time of year by stretching it to the point of exhaustion; the infringement upon both Thanksgiving and the traditional Christian season of Advent, which each tend to be swallowed up by premature Christmas cheer; the obnoxious recruitment of Christmas into the culture wars—think malicious wishes for a “merry Christmas”—that can make the entire season feel alienating and isolating. Every position above has its merits, and none of them stops me from rockin’ around my Christmas tree starting November 1.

Maybe there is no good defense of getting into the Christmas spirit as early as I do—though I can’t help but feel a sense of kinship with those other handful of houses already decked out in lights before Thanksgiving. So have some patience with those of us who need a little Christmas right this very minute: a two-and-a-half-month Christmas really does have a few pleasures to recommend it.

Read the full article.

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Katherine Hu contributed to this newsletter.

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