For this project, I chose to explore the question "Is it rude to move to an unsold seat on a plane?" from FiveThirtyEight’s Flying Etiquette Survey dataset. I picked this question because it is a common scenario that many people encounter and have opinions about. As someone who spent my last semester abroad, I frequently traveled by plane and was gladly always ready to move to an open seat after boarding.
What I found interesting was there was a small percentage (around 4.3%) that thought it was very rude and 14.97% of survey respondents that thought it was somewhat rude. I do believe that the majority of the results being positive indicate a relaxed attitude about attitude seating, but these negative results could also indicate nuances such as moving to a middle seat.
My chart visualizes the frequency of each response to this question, sorted in descending order. It clearly shows that most people do not find moving to an unsold seat rude, with far fewer labeling it “somewhat” or “very rude.” This insight can help inform both airline policies and social expectations around seating flexibility.
