A scientific study was done on Obedience levels from different cultures.
example, A union employee in America is almost "unfireable" so they tend to not fear their bosses, this is considered small "Power Distance" between employee and boss, in contrast other places have absolute obedience from their staff, this would be considered large "Power Distance"... Obviously this example is a massive dumb down from what he said, and also, usually the power distance relates in their culture generally, like for example people from a dictatorship tend to have a larger power distance with authority figures in general.
Using that data as a measuring tool he looked at plane crashes over a long period of time, cant remember how many years, 20 at least I think and it turns out that the countries whos pilots have been involved in more commercial plane crashes are the ones with the largest "Power distances"
He has listened to tapes of archived chatter between air traffic controllers and pilots prior to crashes and has made the observation that pilots from a culture of Absolute Obedience tend to be a lot less pushy at critical times, he goes on to quote verbatim some of the conversations that have transpired between pilots and controllers, if it wasn't so tragic it would be like listening to Billy Connolly, its almost unbelievable.
It was one of the most fascinating stories I ever heard, the guy is so compelling, you should absolutely read his books.
