Project title: The effect of logic and emotion in self-expression of both male and female in Hong Kong

The aims of the research

This research aims at investigating possible differences between genders (i.e. male and female),
particularly the roles emotion and logic play in people of the different sexes in Hong Kong.

The research focuses on the differences in self-expression of both sexes.

Background to the research

With the rapid development of modern society, the roles of male and female have changed
drastically over the past several decades. They have been less distinguishable, more similar and even
reversed in some cases. (Deida, 1997) One thing that has caused such changes is the rising influence of
feminism. It allowed women to have more power in society. As a matter of fact, there had been an
increasing number of female leading roles such as company CEOs and even presidents of countries.
Media nowadays also encouraged this trend to escalate. With an extended coverage and importance
placed on sexism and equal rights, most people have high awareness on such matters. It is further
accentuated when politicians such as the left wing and president candidates in America pay huge
attention on it. (Wayne, 2016)

As such trend continues to grow, increasing groups of people start to criticize it by saying
feminism had gone overboard and lost its original meaning, with was to stop unfair treatment towards
female. Rather, it has already turned into an excuse of gaining control in society and an intangible war of
power between the sexes. Some psychologist and relationship advisors even pointed out that there are
differences in how the natural sex hormones, i.e. testosterone and oestrogen affect the different sexes
and that the traditional roles were more suited for the natural chemistry composition of the human
body. They also pointed out that the recent changes of roles and female being in leading positions is not
how human nature is supposed to work and originally designed. According to (Wayne, 2016), women
are more emotionally-driven and men are more logically-driven. It will create chaos if the gender roles
are reversed, i.e. emotional people in leading positions and logical people in following positions.

This research focuses on whether the above previously drawn conclusions are of fact or fiction
and results regarding one’s self-expression will be investigated.

Literature review

There had been previous coverage regarding male and female self-expression, particularly in the
quantity of self-expression, i.e. the number of words being used. The book The Female Brain pointed out
that there is a significant difference in terms of number of words being used by the two sexes. The
results are generated within American English speakers and it suggested that female utter on average
around 20,000 words a day and male only speaks on average 7,000 words a day. Since feminine energy
has to do with bonding, nurturing, relationship building, talking more would facilitate them fulfilling
their natural urge, resulting in the differences of quantity of speech. (Brizendine, 2009)

However, a study published in Science suggested differently, that male and female generally use
roughly the same number of words daily. (Pennebaker, 2007) Data of 396 university students (210
women and 186 men) at colleges in Texas are recorded with an electronically activated recorder. Results
of the samples suggested that, the average number of words spoken by men and women were about
the same: women at 16,215 words and men at 15,669.

There is a research gap here. First of all, previous research seemed to fail in explaining whether
male and female have differences in patterns of self-expression. There were no authoritative results that
properly explain things. Moreover, previous research was conducted in Western countries and hence
the samples were Westerners. Not only were the conclusions drawn not quite representable, but they
were overseas results. They may be affected by various factors such as cultural background, degree of
freedom and openness. Seems till this day, there isn’t any significant research on self-expression
differences of the both sexes done in Hong Kong.

Research Problem

The participation of logic and emotion in both male and female self-expression in Hong Kong

Research Questions

1. Do male and female differ in terms of quantity of self-expression, i.e. the number of words
being used?
2. Is there a clear classification of self-expression, i.e. whether male and female use logical or
emotional self-expression more?
a. If yes, how’s the classification?
b. If no, is there one category that dominates or are they more equally used?
3. How do the results in Hong Kong match with ones in the West?

Methodology

The research will be carried out in Hong Kong to ensure accurate local statistics that reflect local
situations and it will make use of statistics of an existing corpus I participated in building. The corpus is
formed by collecting data from popular dating app Tinder. As this research focuses on self-expression,
the dating app is believed to provide good insight into the investigated differences. Tinder requires users
to fill in a bio section which is a self-introduction. That can be seen as a written form of self-expression.
Tinder is an app that searches randomly for possible matches base on geographical location, hence
different search location and search time will generate different outcomes. This can ensure the sampling
method is random.

To further ensure the fairness and randomness of the generated results, specific methods and
terms were being applied. The sample filter had included only heterosexual users (i.e. results excluded
LGBTQ community users) and the search reach is limited to only 25km in order to ensure the accuracy of
the location-based results. There was also no age limits. Results generated only included Chinese and
English bios which emojis and other languages are excluded. A total amount of 300 results was
generated spontaneously in three major towns of Hong Kong: 100 samples in Central, Hong Kong Island,
100 samples in Sha Tin, New Territories and 100 in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. The above criteria are
believed to provide information for the corpus that is random, not age or group specific and
spontaneous.

2 corpora of male users and female users will then be generated for further analysis, including
patterns of bio length of male and female users, as well as patterns of wordings being used. As the
research’s main focus is on logic and emotion. A frequency table will then be generated to see the most
frequent used words of the different sexes.

Subsequent steps in the research consist of:

- Revising the existing corpus and extend its size to a 1,000-sample database using similar
methods mentioned above.
- Generate 2 corpora for both male and female users
- Calculate the number of words of each the two corpora, and calculate the difference.
- Generate a frequency table for the two corpora to find out the most frequent words used to
describe themselves. Categorize the words into either emotional or logical.
- Analysis of the generated results and compare it with overseas statistics.
- Form conclusions and recommendations.

Potential outcomes and limitations to the research

Potential outcome may consist of having patterns in both quantity and content of self-
expression, i.e. a particular sex will have a higher quantity in terms of self-expression. The same case
may be a potential for content of self-expression as well.

The main limitation of the research is that it relies a lot in the credibility and accuracy of the
created corpora. Although the sample size of the corpora will be increased from 300 to 1,000, it is still
considered relatively small in size. Moreover, although the app has huge influence over different age
groups and the sampling process is age unlimited, there number of users of different age group may
vary to a certain extent.
 The importance of research, however, lies in seeing whether there are general patterns of
logical and/or emotional involvements in the self-expression of the both sexes. The selected methods of
the research can still draw convincing and representative enough conclusions for the aims.

References:

Wayne, C. (2016). How to be a 3% man: winning the heart of the woman of your dreams. Corey Wayne.

Deida, D. (1997). Way of the Superior Man: a Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women,
Work, and Sexual Desire. Sounds True, Incorporated.

Brizendine, L. (2009). The female brain. London: Bantam.

Pennebaker, J. (2007). Science