Turns Out the Internet Isn’t So Divided on That Viral In-Flight Video

Two American Airlines passengers fought over a reclined seat — then the internet went nuts. But now that the dust has settled, Ranker data says that most people agree about who was in the wrong.

Remember the viral video recorded by an American Airlines passenger that “divided the internet” last week? It turns out that, when it comes to the etiquette of reclining airplane seats, the internet isn’t so divided after all!

The video was recorded by a woman who chose to recline her seat all the way back during a flight from Charlotte to New Orleans. The man sitting behind her was so frustrated by this decision that he started rocking her headrest back repeatedly with his fist, hoping to encourage her to reconsider and bring her seat back to its upright and locked position.

Whether it’s defending the man who just wanted his legroom, supporting the woman who just didn’t want her head punched, or bemoaning the sad state of affairs that allowed such a situation to take place, there’s a take on this video out there just for you. 

But while plenty of outlets have collected many different tweets that responded to the incident, Ranker let readers vote on the tweets that came closest to representing their own beliefs on the subject. After reviewing the results of our survey, it turns out people have plenty of differing opinions about this video, but that doesn’t mean they disagree about which opinion is best. 

Far and away the most popular tweet among our readers was this highly reasonable take from @jordylancaster: just talk it over like adults before staging a highly public temper tantrum! This tweet was voted up by over 1,200 people and voted down by fewer than 200 readers, by far the strongest positive ratio of upvotes to downvotes of all the tweets on the list. 

Internet controversy thrives on the presumption that everything is black-and-white — for example, you either thought “The Dress” was black and blue, or you thought it was gold and white. But when given the opportunity, it seems most people would like to at least try negotiating some kind of middle ground before coming down hard on one opinion. That being said, once a friendly discussion is out of the question…

The next four tweets on the list all blame the guy punching the headrest ahead of him. We all may have our own opinions on how annoying it is when the person ahead of us reclines, but the internet seems to have reached a unanimous decision on whether or not punching is a good remedy for the situation. The tweets ranked at number two, three, four, and five on this list all have well over four times more upvotes than downvotes, which leaves little room for doubt regarding who’s in the wrong here. There’s a steep drop-off at number six with a tweet from @LevineJonathan, which has less than a 3:1 upvote-to-downvote ratio.

From this neutral-ish tweet on out, there’s a very clear trend — the more pro-seat-puncher a tweet is, the lower it sits on the list. The least popular tweet included here said the guy in the back was justified because “People who recline are bad people.” The tweet had four times more downvotes than upvotes, which indicates that, by and large, the internet doesn’t consider reclining on an airplane a punchable offense.

Does this strong consensus on our list prove who’s right and who’s wrong? Of course not! You could turn to any number of people as authorities on this issue — including the CEO of American Airlines — who might offer different, equally valid opinions on when it’s okay to recline on your flight and how to communicate with other passengers. But what this list does indicate, contrary to popular opinion, is that the internet is far from divided about what went down in this video.

These stories are crafted using Ranker Insights, which takes over one billion votes cast on Ranker.com and converts them into actionable psychographics about pop culture fans across the world. To learn more about how our Ranker Insights can be customized to serve your business needs, visit insights.ranker.com, or email us at insights@ranker.com.