Altruism Male or Female 1

Running head: Altruism Male/Female

Is Altruism Male of Female Dominated?

Kayla Fort
Nichols College

Abstract
The hypothesis our experiment tested was; Who shows the most altruism for a female carrying
an armful of books, male or female? Methods that were used to investigate the problem were

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observation, recording, and manipulation. We used 40 students from Nichols College 20 males
and 20 females to conduct this experiment. We observed which gender held the door open more
often for a female holding an armful of books through a busy campus building. After completion
of the experiment we found out our guess of males would hold the door more often was in fact
true.

Would you hold the door for someone who needed help or not?
Who shows the most altruism by holding the door for a female carrying an arm full of
books, males or females? During the experiment we observed 40 individuals displaying the

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bystander effect and recorded 10 examples. We manipulated the data by having a group member
have an arm full of books, seeing if someone (male or female) would be willing to hold the door
open. We compare our study to the three articles we found about altruism, bystander effect, and
gender differences. There have been studies conducted on all three of the categories previously
stated. In the article, Which Is The Fair Sex? Gender Differences In Altruism, Economists have
found some preliminary indications that such differences between genders may be important.
Found in their research during the past decade, researchers have found that males and females
have different patterns of altruism, with each sex favoring different types of charities influenced
by different factors. This article defines altruism as who is the most fair when it comes to gender
(Andreoni, Vesterlund, 2001)? In the article Peer Bystanders to Bullying: Who Wants to Play
With the Victim? The bystander effect is defined as the likelihood an individual will intervene on
behalf of another if there is the perception that other bystanders are present. In the study from
this article, the researchers observed reactions of 27 preschool children while in the presence of a
distressed peer. The results were low when someone else was around to potentially help the
distressed peer (Howard, Landau, Pryor, 2014). Another study that has been conducted with the
bystander effect, Victim Sec on Female Bystanders Responses to a Potential Party Rape,
explains that contrast to the classic bystander effect, bystanders in groups intended to offer more
help than lone bystanders. Bystanders also intended to offer more help to potential female
victims and experienced more barriers to helping male victims (Katz, Colbert, Colangelo, 2015).
This article explains the bystander effect as intending to help others. A problem that our research
addresses is the question of what gender shows the most selflessness while someone is struggling
to open the door for themselves. A conflict that this research will address complies with the
empathy level of the bystander who is near while the book carrying individual walks toward the
door. This problem is significant because it relates to altruism, the bystander effect, and gender
differences all hot topics in the research field today. People who could benefit from the results of
this study are college students, mall shoppers, or anybody walking through a busy public place.
Method
Methods that were used to investigate the problem were observation, recording, and
manipulation. The group first sat and watched 40 samples 20 males 20 females; we documented
which gender held the door more often for the person carrying the large amount of books, which
was also our independent variable. Our next step was to record 10 samples to get film data.
While observing and recording the data, we manipulated the experiment by having one group
member carrying a large amount of books to make it clear to the sample that they need help
opening the door. These methods were used because we first needed to collect initial data. After
we had the initial data we needed 10 more subjects to record to have the film data. Observation,
recording, and manipulation were used to get the full effect of the bystander effect, altruism, and
gender differences.
Subjects
The subjects used for this experiment were 40 random students from a small New
England private business school at Nichols College students, 20 males 20 females. The subjects
were measured at the 1:30pm WOW Caf lunch rush in the Fels Student Center.
Procedure and Materials

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The procedure of this experiment was conducted by 4 group members. We first started by
picking a group member to be an active participant in the experiment. The group member loaded
up her arms with books and when she saw someone coming she would begin to walk towards the
doors leading into the main part of the student center. The other group members sat nearby and
took down the data of whether the individual was male or female and if they held the door or not.
After the first 30 trials were completed, a group member began to record the last 10 trials on her
iPhone. The dependent variable was measured simply by if the door was being held or not by
male or female.
Materials needed for this experiment:
Notepad
Pen or pencil
Large quantity of books (Approximately 11)
o 8 Textbooks
o 3 Binders
o *Description* or picture
IPhone
Doorway entrance
The way we measured door holding is if a person is walking by, in front of, or behind the
person holding the large stack of books (approximately 11 books), held the door open for them
by holding the door until they walked through. Holding the door wouldnt count if they just
pushed the door open hard for the subject to walk through the door by picking their pace up.
Holding the door would also not count if there were a steady line of people walking through just
pushing the door for the next person in line. In most cases the person holding the door would
make eye contact and exchanged words with the person in need of the door being held.
Results
In our experiment our independent variable was a female carrying a large amount of text
books in her arms. Our dependent variable was who held the door more, males or females. The
statistical test that was used for this experiment was the chi-square test. This test was used
because the study included nominal data. The study was a hypothesis of difference because the
study was measuring independent selections of two or more measures. No subject was measured
more than once.

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Contingency table results:

Rows: Gender
Columns: Hold door
Cell format
Count
(Expected count)

No

Yes

Total

Female

13
(9.5)

7
(10.5)

20

Male

6
(9.5)

14
(10.5)

20

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Total

19

21

40

Chi-Square test:
Statistic

DF

Value

P-value

Chi-square

4.9122807

0.0267

Discussion
Who shows the most altruism by holding the door for a female carrying an arm full of
books, males or females? The results from this experiment addressed the problem of what gender
shows the most selflessness when they see someone struggling to open the door for himself or
herself. The results of this study proved the hypothesis to be correct because the male gender
held the door more often than the female gender. Potential sources of error could be defined as an
individual witnessing the experiment going on, and feeling the need to help just to be part of the
experiment. Another potential error could be because of social desirability; the subjects are just
holding the door because they think we want them to. An anomaly we found was a male just
walking by witnessing and ignoring the female holding the books and struggling to open the door
for herself. The impact and implications that this research might have could suggest that males
show more altruism towards a struggling female subject on the Nichols College campus. This
research could affect altruism based on gender in a set setting. A future experiment based on our
research could use different settings of colleges, for example size of college, different state, or
different male to female ratios on campus. Another future experiment could manipulate whether
the gender of the subject carrying the books could influence what gender opens the door. These
conclusions could have the effect on the industry by further educating psychologists on the idea
of altruism.
References
Katz, J., Colbert, S., & Colangelo, L., (2015). Effects of Group Status and Victim Sex on Female
Bystanders Responses to a Potential Party Rape. Violence and Victims, 30 (2), 265-278.
SUNY College at Geneso.
Andreoni, J. and Vesterlund, L., (2015). Which is the Fair Sex? Gender Differences in
Altruism. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 293-312.
Howard, A., Landau, S., & Pryor, J., (2013). Peer Bystanders to Bullying: Who Wants to Play
With the Victim?, Journal Of Abnormal Child Psychology, 42, 265-276.