Psychology Experiment

Alfredo, Anthony, James, Joshua

Social Psychology Concept Being Tested

Conformity or Gender Bias

How Are We Testing This Idea?

We tested this by causing a portion of a
classroom, about 75-85%, to seat themselves
based on gender. Half the class would be boys
and the other half girls.

Confounding Variables
A major confounding variable could be one of
the students knowing that the experiment is
occurring and informing those who do not
know, which would influence their decision of
where to sit.

Describe Your Experiment

First, we convinced a teacher to let us conduct our experiment in a classroom.
Then, we received a roster of the class and informed the first 75-85% of the
students to seat themselves based on gender. Then, the remaining students
were to free to choose wherever they wanted to sit. Next, we recorded the data
and asked the students who were not informed of where to sit to answer a
questionnaire with the following questions:
1. Did you notice that the room was divided by gender? If yes, did you take
that into consideration when you chose your seat?
2. Why did you pick to sit in the particular seat you sat in?
3. Did the room being divided by gender affect your decision about where to
sit?
4. Why do you think that gender made a difference or not when making your
decisions about where to sit?

Data
50% of the students noticed that the room was divided by
gender.
75% chose their seats to be near friends.
50% admitted to consciously choosing their seats based on
gender.
75% stated that the division in gender caused them to go
towards their own gender so that they would not stand out
or be the only only one of their gender in the other group.

Data
Some of the answers given included:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Did you notice that the room was divided by gender? If yes, did you take that into consideration when you chose
your seat?
Yes! I chose my seat because it was by ABBY.. lol
Why did you pick to sit in the particular seat you sat in?
I sat here because not a lot of people were around + I was by my friend
Did the room being divided by gender affect your decision about where to sit?
Yes, I didnt really want to sit by the guys
Why do you think that gender made a difference or not when making your decisions about where to sit?
The boys are obnoxious + I would have been the only girl over there