Originally Posted by cardiomd

Not necessarily sad - possibly a bit of a "protective instinct" phenomenon. In medicine this happens a lot too - if somebody says the "surgery is too dangerous" then often no other surgeons will do the surgery on that patient. If somebody did it and something bad happened, there is a lot of stuff in the chart on how it "was too dangerous."

Part of the rationale is protecting hindsight judgment -- "Delta xxx, Republic xxx both decided weather was too bad, then YOU GO?? Why would you think you would be that much better than them?"

Similarly, it is a bit of a defense (not always legit of course) that "other similar types were doing fine so I decided to go."

Finally you don't want to put your colleagues in the awkward situation where you decide to go right after they decline, looks like you tried to "show them up."

I'm sure other areas/fields see similar phenomenon.

Stay warm fellas.