"Drop It" Experiment
By Steve Wang
Actors of both genders are dropping multiple boxes of tissues to see the reactions of people of both genders. This is to test which gender is more friendly to which and how genders would react to the opposite gender or the same gender.
Hypothesis Table: Guesses on the results of the experiment.
The horizontal names are the actor’s.
| gender | Female (Zoey) | Male (Ingram) |
|---|---|---|
| (see) Male | Walk away (males are less empathetic) | Walk away look amused (because guys like to look at the misfortune of others) |
| (see) Female | Walk away might look concerned (females might look concerned for other females) | Walk away might look surprised (if they did not see tissue and a dude just bends down it might be weird) |
Results Table: age 1 means young/student age 2 means adult working age individuals age 3 means retirement age individuals
| Gender | Age (1,2,3) | Reaction | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ingram starts | ||||
| W | 3 | Ignore | ||
| W | 3 | Help | ||
| M | 2 | Glanced | ||
| W | 2 | Looked | ||
| M | 2 | Glances | ||
| W | 2 | Glanced | ||
| M | 3 | Ignore | ||
| M | 3 | Ignored | ||
| W | 2 | Glanced | ||
| M | 2 | Glanced | ||
| M | 2 | Glancdd | ||
| M | 2 | Glanced | ||
| M | 3 | Ignored | ||
| W | 3 | Ignored | ||
| W | 3 | Ignored | ||
| W | 3 | Ignored | ||
| M | 2 | Ignored | ||
| W | 2 | Ignored | ||
| W | 3 | Glanced | ||
| W | 3 | Looked | ||
| W | 2 | Ignored | ||
| W | 2 | Ignored | ||
| M | 2 | Looked | ||
| W | 3 | Looked | ||
| M | 3 | Looked | ||
| M | 2 | Looked | ||
| M | 3 | Looked jump back | ||
| M | 1 | Looked | ||
| W | 1 | Looked | ||
| W | 1 | Lookee | ||
| M | 1 | Looked | ||
| W | 1 | Helped | ||
| W | 1 | Helped | ||
| M | 1 | Looked | ||
| M | 1 | Ignored | ||
| W | 1 | Looked | ||
| W | 1 | Ignored | ||
| M | 1 | Helped | ||
| W | 1 | Looked | ||
| W | 1 | Helped | ||
| Zoey starts here | ||||
| W | 2 | Moved to help and glanced | ||
| M | 3 | Looked | ||
| W | 3 | Glanxed | ||
| M | 3 | Looked | ||
| W | 3 | Helped | ||
| M | 3 | Looked constantly but walked away | ||
| W | 2 | Ignored | ||
| W | 2 | Helped | ||
| W | 2 | Looked then helped | ||
| W | 3 | Looked then helped | ||
| W | 3 | Stood and waited) | ||
| M | 2 | Looked | ||
| W | 2 | Looked | ||
| W | 2 | Looked | ||
| M | 4 | Looked and thought | ||
| M | 2 | Looked | ||
| M | 2 | Helped | ||
| M | 2 | Helped | ||
| M | 3 | Ignored | ||
| M | 1 | Looked | ||
| W | 1 | Looked | ||
| M | 3 | Looked | ||
| M | 3 | Ignored | ||
| W | 3 | Ignored | ||
| W | 1 | Looked( | ||
| M | 1 | Helped | ||
| M | 3 | wanted to Help | ||
| M | 3 | Looked | ||
| W | 1 | Looked | ||
| M | 1 | Looked | ||
| W | 2 | Stopped by boyfriend | ||
| M | 1 | Walked away | ||
| W | 1 | Helped |
I did not expect so many people to help pick up the dropped tissue boxes. I thought most people would just walk away. There were about 15 recorded instances where people have helped the actor or were going to help the actor. However, it seems like people helped the female actor more. The female actor was helped 9 times comapred to the 5 times the male actor was helped. This may be because of gender biases. People might be more sympathetic or willing to help females instead of males. Or, it could be because the female actor just had better timing.
From the results, women are helped more might be because according to the big 5 personality traits, women are more agreeable. Agreeable people are generally more well liked and people tend are more likely to help people they like. Compared to men who helped sometimes probably because they have a higher level of extraversion (according to the Big Five Personality traits). Having a high level of extraversion might cause them to be more outgoing and sociable. So, when judging someone and their personality, gender can be weighed less heavily because both gender helped others a roughly equal amount of times. However, if you are a female and want to ask for help, it is better to go to a female because from the data, females will usually help females.