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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Aug 8, 2014 2:34:02 GMT
Stroop Test (Busted): Surprising. I expected the men to get much slower.
Scent Test (Confirmed): Adam's Sweat + Pheromones wins, but sweat is supposed to attract the opposite gender because sweat is a pheromone by itself.
Boob Size vs Tip Size (Confirmed): Okay, no surprise here when the 'monkey brains take over' (to paraphrase Tori)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Busted): Interesting, but not too surprising. Hair color preference is a matter of personal taste.
Personal Worth vs Attractiveness (Confirmed): Women are superficial after all? Not sure how to debrief this one.
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Post by blazerrose on Aug 8, 2014 5:37:55 GMT
I have to wonder if the "group think" mentality didn't play into the wealth test. To be more accurate, they should have not allowed commentary or reactions.
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Aug 8, 2014 12:46:09 GMT
I have to wonder if the "group think" mentality didn't play into the wealth test. To be more accurate, they should have not allowed commentary or reactions. Nobody wants to stick out, so they claim that they made the decision based on the same criteria as previous responses. Until, someone is willing to state a decision based on a different criteria and all answers after that follow that line of thinking. I could see that having an effect on a study such as the one they did.
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Post by WhutScreenName on Aug 8, 2014 13:59:55 GMT
I understand the testing method they used for men prefer blondes, but I'm not sure it really worked all that well as there were too many other factors in addition to the sample size of men (only 9 per group) being way too small. I'm not suggesting that the results would be different, however.
Edit: Oh, and I would have loved to have known the numbers for the women tips in the larger breast size. Kari said they tipped 40% more when she had the large, but what about when she taped them down?
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Aug 8, 2014 14:31:25 GMT
I understand the testing method they used for men prefer blondes, but I'm not sure it really worked all that well as there were too many other factors in addition to the sample size of men (only 9 per group) being way too small. I'm not suggesting that the results would be different, however. I believe they used the same group of men for all three tests. What's the probablity that at least some of the men figured out the wig change scheme by the third round? An interesting point of analysis within the results of this myth lies in what percentage of the customers were 'regulars' vs what percentage were walk-ins (never been there before) over the course of the three days. One overly generous walk-in could skew the results dramatically.
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Post by Antigone68104 on Aug 8, 2014 14:32:13 GMT
The male reactions in the tip test had me wondering if anyone was tracking how often Kari got propositioned.
On the "women go for money" test, I don't see any way to eliminate "this guy is probably smarter" bias from the testing. If you find intelligence attractive, and the only information you have is Joe is a baker and Jack is a surgeon, the common assumption is that Jack has more education and is therefore more intelligent.
Stroop test -- I would have liked for them to split the test group up, half of each gender getting their initial test with the opposite-gender actor and half with the same-gender. (And then flipped for the second test.) I know you aren't supposed to "get used to" a Stroop test, but knowing what's going on could have some effect.
Pheromone test -- I know that many species that we know are attracted to pheromones also have an estrus cycle, meaning that no matter what the male smells like, it won't attract the female unless she's at the right point in the cycle to breed. Humans don't have estrus, but has anyone ever researched whether human females have an increase in their sense of smell at different points in the menstrual cycle? That might explain, in part, the love it or hate it response to Adam's sweat + pheromones. It's too big a test for the MBs to ever pull off, though.
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Post by Antigone68104 on Aug 8, 2014 14:33:47 GMT
I believe they used the same group of men for all three tests. What's the probablity that at least some of the men figured out the wig change scheme by the third round? I think they said that it was a different group of men each time.
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Post by WhutScreenName on Aug 8, 2014 14:56:42 GMT
I believe they used the same group of men for all three tests. What's the probablity that at least some of the men figured out the wig change scheme by the third round? I think they said that it was a different group of men each time. I believe you are correct anti, I thought they said that as well.
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Post by OziRiS on Aug 8, 2014 23:43:00 GMT
Here's my take:
What's difficult about all these tests is that people are attracted to different things. Hair color may be a thing for a guy, but it may depend on whether he thinks the woman is attractive in other ways as well. I prefer brunettes if we're only looking at hair color, but so much more comes into play. What does the rest of her look like? (eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, jaw line, body type) Does she have tattoes or piercings? (I was completely turned off the one with the nose ring, no matter what hair color she had) What's she like personality wise? Do we share interests? How does she speak? (annoying/pleasant voice, choise of words, intonation and so on) And most importantly of all: Does she respond to me, or does it seem like she'd rather be somewhere else?
When I'm trying to figure out if I'm attracted to someone, all of these things are factored in. Hair color, combined with the way she looks in general, may get me initially, but if I talk to her and she has an extremely annoying voice, I may loose interest. I may then regain interest if what she actually says overpowers the annoyance of how it sounds and then loose it again if she turns out to have a despicable personality. It's not that cut and dry, which I also think most of the tests succeeded in showing, so all in all, it was fairly well done.
So, on to the tests themselves.
Stroop test: I know they say you're not supposed to be able to get better at it with practice, but that's not true. First time I took the test, I was as confused as everyone else. Second time though, I knew what was going on and I found a strategy that made me better at it. Forget there's a word in there at all and just focus on a smaller section of it (for me it was the lower left corner of the word), so you only see the color. Easy.
Now, factor in the person of the opposite sex conducting the test and what happens will not only depend on people's strategy for getting through the test, but will also depend on other things. Do the test subjects find that person attractive at all? Are they focusing more, trying to impress that person because they find them attractive? Is their desire to do well on a Mythbusters tests overshadowing their attraction to the actor? Would it have made a difference if the person conducting the test had actually been visible to them while the test was being administered? (The actors were outside the test subjects' field of vision while the test was being conducted) What if the test subjects had found the actors more attractive than they did? Or less...? What if the actors had actually been in swimwear, as Jamie suggested?
All that being said, the myth was stated as "the presence of a person of the opposite sex will make you dumber". As crude a definition of the myth as it may have been (I think people do get a little dumber when they're around someone they're genuinely attracted to on a deeper level than just looks), they did succeed in proving that as a general rule, it's completely false.
Bigger boobs equal better tips: I have some problems with the way this was carried out.
Problem #1: While it certainly seemed that Kari had the whole coffee waitress act down, she's not used to that job. People may tip based on how perky and smiley and maybe even attractive you are, but they also tip based on how good a service you provide (how many mistakes are made, how fast they get served and so on). While the bigger chest certainly got some looks, there's also the very real possibility that Kari was just better at the job on day 3, which would also explain why the women tipped more.
Problem #2: The test was carried out to find out if bigger boobs automatically means bigger tips. I don't think the test showed that it did. It may have shown (and I say "may" because of my above concern) that bigger boobs on an already attractive woman like Kari automatically means bigger tips, but what if she'd been sporting a nasty unibrow? Or if she'd been fat? Or had nasty teeth? Let's be honest here. Kari doesn't exactly represent "the average woman" as far as looks go, so what if it had been someone who wasn't necessarily ugly, but at least not as beautiful as Kari? I wonder what would have happened if they'd used two actors who looked more "normal", very similar to each other (same height, hair color, eye color, weight, similar facial features and so on) and who were instructed to act the same way with all the customers, but where one had bigger boobs than the other. When the results of that test are in, do it again, but this time add Kari and see if her better overall looks wouldn't tip the results.
I call revisit on this one.
Pheromone test: I think Antigone's on to something with the idea that women may respond differently at different times of their menstrual cycles. I also think there may be different results with women of different ages. Younger women are more likely to be looking for a fertile mate than older women, so their reaction might be stronger. I like the way test was set up, but I think the results only scratched the surface of what's really going on, leaving me to think they could dive deeper into this and perhaps come to an even more interesting conclusion the next time around.
Money Talks: I'm with Blazerrose on this one. Massive mistake to have the women all sitting together in one room and being allowed to comment along the way. I also think the way they made the men "richer" was a mistake. A job says so much more than how much money you have in the bank. It says something about your education level, your interests, your ambitions, possibly about your level of empathy for others (doctos, veterenarians etc.), your propensity for risk taking etc. If they truly wanted a result on whether or not wealth played a part in attractiveness, they shouldn't have informed the women of the men's jobs, but rather their annual income. But even that would have given the women clues to what the men's professions were and wouldn't have been a perfect indicator. They could just have concluded that someone who makes so-and-so must be ambitious, well educated and so on, so I'll call this one inconclusive at best.
Gentelemen Prefer Blondes: This is the only test I feel was absolutely spot on. I think they could have done this ad infinitum and gotten the same results, regardless of sample size. Well done. Myth busted.
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Post by breesfan on Aug 9, 2014 1:35:40 GMT
Didn't really care for this episode for whatever reason. Maybe because there weren't any cute, sexy looking guys in their swimming trunks. The cable was messing up the first 15 minutes so I didn't understand the test. So are we saying because the opposite sex is in the room, the man gets dumber? But from what I could see, the guys never looked at the woman since she was off to the side and I have to admit, maybe her in a bikini might have made them slower. Maybe if the women were tested, guy in their swim trunks might make them slower too. Boobs test, I think they should have had a mix of women, those who are fat, not really that pretty to see if it really has to do with looks or boobs. The color of hair, I think they should have had different women with different hair.
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Aug 9, 2014 12:19:51 GMT
The color of hair, I think they should have had different women with different hair. I think you're on to something there. Sometimes it might not be as much the hair color as it is the hair style in terms of what a potential suitor is looking for. So, they should have tested with long hair, short hair, straight hair, curly hair and so on. It makes sense.
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Post by OziRiS on Aug 9, 2014 21:22:58 GMT
The color of hair, I think they should have had different women with different hair. I think you're on to something there. Sometimes it might not be as much the hair color as it is the hair style in terms of what a potential suitor is looking for. So, they should have tested with long hair, short hair, straight hair, curly hair and so on. It makes sense. I still don't think it would have made any difference. There's just too much other stuff you look for in a potential mate to let hair color and style be a complete dealmaker/-breaker. Even if you were so shallow that a specific hair color and style was a must for you, you'd still want it on the right woman and not just any woman. It may be something that catches your initial interest, but if nothing else about her subsequently succeeds in maintaining that interest, you're on to the next one anyway.
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Post by the light works on Aug 10, 2014 4:37:52 GMT
my thoughts, now that I have seen it.
the stroop test: I agree they couldn't effectively simplify it and get a valid result. the men may have tried harder to impress the girl, they may have gotten over the first-time difficulty.
bigger tips: the question we came up with was, is a girl more likely to accept a proposition from a big tipper; or is man's evolutionary drive failing to provide the correct response?
the pheromone test: I would have liked them to also have a red token for their choice for worst. it would be interesting to see if the impression that the Adam+pheromone shirt was truly also the most hated.
Money Talks: I think that there might also have been a drive to select careers that might provide a more favorable home situation.
Gentlemen prefer blondes: I want to see what sort of variance there was between the girls' natural hair colors and the wigs. - did the girls get better ratings with their natural hair color?
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Post by OziRiS on Aug 10, 2014 18:42:52 GMT
bigger tips: the question we came up with was, is a girl more likely to accept a proposition from a big tipper; or is man's evolutionary drive failing to provide the correct response? Well, if the results of the "Money Talks" test were to be an indicator (and I don't think they are), the answer to that should be yes. A girl should be more likely to accept a proposition from a big tipper.
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Post by the light works on Aug 10, 2014 22:26:08 GMT
bigger tips: the question we came up with was, is a girl more likely to accept a proposition from a big tipper; or is man's evolutionary drive failing to provide the correct response? Well, if the results of the "Money Talks" test were to be an indicator (and I don't think they are), the answer to that should be yes. A girl should be more likely to accept a proposition from a big tipper. not sure the correlation is that clear...
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Post by OziRiS on Aug 10, 2014 22:52:06 GMT
Well, if the results of the "Money Talks" test were to be an indicator (and I don't think they are), the answer to that should be yes. A girl should be more likely to accept a proposition from a big tipper. not sure the correlation is that clear... I'm not either. Recall that I called revisit on the "Money Talks" myth. But if we were to go blindly by the results of that test, just for the sake of argument, you could naturally assume that a man who leaves a big tip has the money to do so, or he wouldn't be doing it. If he's at the same time somewhat nicely dressed and speaks like someone with an actual brain between his ears that he knows how to use, then a woman might assume he's a succesful man with a lot of money and find him attractive, based solely on that assumption. I don't personally think it's quite that simple, but the results of the test suggest otherwise.
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Post by the light works on Aug 10, 2014 23:01:19 GMT
not sure the correlation is that clear... I'm not either. Recall that I called revisit on the "Money Talks" myth. But if we were to go blindly by the results of that test, just for the sake of argument, you could naturally assume that a man who leaves a big tip has the money to do so, or he wouldn't be doing it. If he's at the same time somewhat nicely dressed and speaks like someone with an actual brain between his ears that he knows how to use, then a woman might assume he's a succesful man with a lot of money and find him attractive, based solely on that assumption. I don't personally think it's quite that simple, but the results of the test suggest otherwise. my question is whether the woman will interpret it as a sign of being a good provider, or will interpret it as being a sign of thinking he can buy her affections. (minding that this is a comparison between being a good tipper and making a show of overtipping, not between being a bad tipper and a good tipper)
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Aug 11, 2014 13:14:38 GMT
I think you're on to something there. Sometimes it might not be as much the hair color as it is the hair style in terms of what a potential suitor is looking for. So, they should have tested with long hair, short hair, straight hair, curly hair and so on. It makes sense. I still don't think it would have made any difference. There's just too much other stuff you look for in a potential mate to let hair color and style be a complete dealmaker/-breaker. Even if you were so shallow that a specific hair color and style was a must for you, you'd still want it on the right woman and not just any woman. It may be something that catches your initial interest, but if nothing else about her subsequently succeeds in maintaining that interest, you're on to the next one anyway. I would think that hair color/style is part of the *initial* attraction. In the case of speed dating, does the initial attraction linger throughout the process because you don't have enough time to get much further than surface questions (name/age/profession)?
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Post by OziRiS on Aug 11, 2014 13:19:08 GMT
I'm not either. Recall that I called revisit on the "Money Talks" myth. But if we were to go blindly by the results of that test, just for the sake of argument, you could naturally assume that a man who leaves a big tip has the money to do so, or he wouldn't be doing it. If he's at the same time somewhat nicely dressed and speaks like someone with an actual brain between his ears that he knows how to use, then a woman might assume he's a succesful man with a lot of money and find him attractive, based solely on that assumption. I don't personally think it's quite that simple, but the results of the test suggest otherwise. my question is whether the woman will interpret it as a sign of being a good provider, or will interpret it as being a sign of thinking he can buy her affections. (minding that this is a comparison between being a good tipper and making a show of overtipping, not between being a bad tipper and a good tipper) I understand your question fully and the "answer" I've provided isn't really an answer at all. It's more a demonstration of why I think the tests are too simplistic. I think it's much more complex than that, just as you do, but the results, as they were presented after the tests, implicate that it IS that simple. There's much more nuance to how people think than just "big boobies makes men tip more" and "bigger tips means you're wealthy, which women respond to". There is, without a doubt women who respond more to a man with less substance and a lot of money than to a man with less money and more substance, just as there are men who go into monkey brain mode when they see big boobs, but there are also men who want more in a woman than that and aren't as affected. The tests may be indicative of something true, but I wouldn't go as far as calling any of them conclusive. Plausible at best, but not confirmed.
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Post by the light works on Aug 11, 2014 14:05:07 GMT
and then I wonder if the women's monkey brain viewed Kari's enhanced profile as a sign of recent motherhood and were instinctively compelled to give extra support to aid in the nurturing.
and it was my mother who studied sociology - not me.
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