Besides not beaming down, another factor that showed to increase the survival rate of the red-shirts was the nature of the relationship between the alien life and captain Kirk. When Captain Kirk meets an alien woman and “makes contact” the survival rate of the red-shirted crewmen increases by 84%. In fact, out of Captain Kirks’ 24 “relationships” there were only three instances of red-shirt vaporization.
The caveat to this is when Captain Kirk not only meets the local alien women, but also starts a fight among alien locals. The combination of these events has led to the elimination of 4 crewmembers (3 red-shirts).
Here are the statistics:
Red Shirt Death episodes = 18
Episodes with fights = 55
Probability of a fight breaking out = 70%
Kirk “conquest” episodes = 24
Kirk “conquest” + fights = 16
Kirk “conquest” + red shirt casualty= 4
Red shirt death + fight + Kirk “conquest” = 3—Matt Bailey —Analytics According to Captain Kirk (The Inside Track)
There’s an amusing chart that shows crewmember deaths (by shirt-color-coded tombstones) in relation to Kirk’s romantic conquests and the number of fights.
So the redshirts are showing off in the presence of videographers, taking more risks — or at least resisting being caught in the cowardly act of disobeying Scotty’s order to go into the auxiliary machine storage room and check the level of superfluons in the backup whatsit? Interesting theory!
I would think this is a function more of on-screen time than violence. If Kirk is spending minutes wooing the ladies, there is less script time available for dramatic death scenes. Starfleet might as well issue a warning to avoid cinematographers, as few crewmembers die off-camera.