Research Method

Research Proposal

Team 8

In order to nd a solution to our hypotheses, we need to develop a research method design to test whether our personality
in uences our decision to order food and whether, in addition to this variable, advertisements can also modify our decision.

To do so, we have to design a manipulation event experiment with the nal objective of a controlled comparison. We
consider this to be the most appropriate option because if you are going to research personality traits, it is crucial to take
control of the participants at the moment, controlling all the possible errors. It's better to put themselves in a "real
situation” like reacting to an advertisement and ordering food, rather than just asking and letting them react by themselves
without the researchers.

In this type of experiment, two sets of conditions that are identical except for the manipulation are compared. In this case,
the variables are clear: being of type P or type J personality, exposure to the advertisement and the nal decision of what
to order. We, therefore, have two independent variables and one dependent variable, which we will have to measure using
behavioural measures. The research design would consist of a 2x2 between-groups factorial design. (Annex 1) With this we
can asnwer the two questions: are one or both IVs related to the DV? Is the personality or the advertisement more
powerfull related to the nal decistion to order?

A) Participants

1.1 Description

For the experiment to be successful and convincing, we would need a total of eighty participants, forty with a P personality
and forty with a J personality, i.e. we are looking for purposive sampling. That is why our target group would be people of
Korean nationality in their twenties, with personality I and with an MBTI score above 60% in one of the two lifestyle
preference traits.

We looked for them in this speci c age group because they are the most technologically pro cient age group. As far as
introverted personality is concerned, we consider that recruiting participants with both attitudes could alter the results due
to this variable and not the one we want to investigate. On the other hand, we are going to discard those candidates with
an E personality to avoid extraneous variance and to avoid distortion; moreover, it is also convenient for us since those with
an introverted personalities tend to be less sociable and, therefore, to eat less outside.

As far as gender is concerned, we would like it to be equalised, but it is not one of our priorities as we consider that it will
not be a variable. While some studies have reported that women order more food than men on average, we do not think it
is relevant.

1.2 How do we reach them?

We will try to contact the participants by sending an email to 한국MBTI심리연구소 to ask for their collected data and to
contact them to make the proposal. The candidates will be people who have accepted the privacy policy. We would need,
if we take into account that the expected response rate of email is 10%, to try to contact about a thousand people so that
they can participate in person and it is feasible.

B) Experiment process

2.1 Where and when

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We want to carry out the experiment in two classrooms at Sogang University, GA 403/402 to be more speci c. They are
two spaces suitable for 40 people in each, well ventilated and located in a central area of the city of Seoul. The experiment
would take place on a weekday and would last for an hour, as an email would be sent to the participants beforehand
explaining what the experiment would consist of. In this way, we save time in explanations.

One element that has been carefully chosen is the time of the experiment: half past eleven. We have chosen it carefully so
that it is close to lunchtime and the participants will be thinking on an empty stomach.

2.2 Description

First of all, to the candidates selected by the 한국MBTI심리연구소 and who have accepted, we will explain that we are part of
the research team of a fake delivery app for ordering food that is starting its beta version. Doing it this way, we avoid one of
the main limitations of the experiment, testing and social desirability. We make them feel that they are not aligned and that
they are participating in a test without feeling pressured.

As previously mentioned, we will divide the eighty candidates into two groups: the control group (1B, 2B), which will be
taken to one of the conventional classrooms, and the experimental group (1A, 2A), which will be taken to a classroom full of
posters with food advertisements. This second group will receive the manipulation. We need both groups to be formed by
the J and P personality groups respectively, thus achieving the 4 groups of our design.

Before entering the classroom you will be asked the following questions:

1. What do you want for lunch?

■ I have something in mind. (Go to number 2)

■ I have nothing in mind. (Go to number 3)

2. What are you going to order?

3. Why not?

They will then enter their respective classrooms so that, once inside, they can try out the fake delivery app and order the
food they want. By asking them again what do they want for lunch, we directly measure subject’s perception of the IV,
checking the manipulation. Ordering the food should be simply entering the exact name of the food, not choosing the
food from the menu.

2.3 Advertisements

Going into more detail in the description of how the advertisements would look like, they must consist of simple images,
i.e. just the product. No celebrities, o ers, catchy slogans or any other elements that could manipulate the participants
without the control of the researchers. Even though it is di cult to fully control the level of in uence that would be applied
to each participant, we consider that having these limitations will make it reliable. We are not concerned about the brand
name, in fact, the election of the ads is going to be the same products from di erent chains. (Annex 2-6) This way, it will
be more reliable and we will be able to control possible extraneous variables.

2.4 Collection of data and statistical procedures

To collect all the results of the experiment, the researchers would be present asking the questions and recording each
participant's answers and reactions. Beforehand, they will have been asked for their consent to be recorded.

After the experiment, the data will be simpli ed and organised with descriptive statistics. Taking into account that is
categorical data, we will have to do some bar charts.

C) Limitations and points of improvement

To begin with, the first limitation is that, even though it is an experiment that doesn’t require much budget, it requires lot of
time and a certain amount of candidates that won’t be easy to organise.
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 Secondly, we understand that the MBTI has been a subject of much criticism for its validity. However, with studies like ours,
we agreed that we can settle statements about our society in daily life decisions such as ordering food. A line of
improvement could be to continue the investigations and exploring more relations between our personality traits and other
decisions like these. We are not sure that the lab will provide us with the information that we require. In case it’s not feasible
to do so, that’s the biggest limitation and we should seek for other possibilities like doing the MBTI testing by ourselves to
students from university and follow the convenience sampling path.

Also, eventhough the experiment it’s not just purely descirptive, a good point of improvement could be continue the
investigation and try to understand the effects in a more deeper way.

Annexe

Annex 1; table design

WITH WITHOUT
ADVERTISEMENT (A) ADVERTISEMENT (B)
Experimental group Control group

PERSONALITY P (1)
1A 1B

PERSONALITY J (2)
2A 2B

Annex 2-6; some examples of possible advertisements for the experimental group