Experiment on Agism and Appearance effect
How do appearance and factors such as age influence our decisions?

Main idea of the experiment is to prove that appearance and ageism still influence our world even though we are all sure that it is not part of us anymore. For about 300 years women such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Elizabeth Cady Stanton fighted for their rights. However, through generations the situation significantly changed and we still have factors that influence our decisions.

Purpose of the experiment

Show that

1) Agism is still influencing our world even

though people think oppositely

2) show the irrational choice based on look of the person

How does the experiment go?

For half of the people I gave a paper forms with description of 4 teachers and asked them to choose the best one for their literature lessons. They will not have any personal information such as age, gender, photo about these teachers. For the other half I will present the same teachers with exactly the same descriptions but will add photos and other information about them.

How it is done

To one half of opponents which is 12 people different ages descriptions of 4 teachers are

given. They have no more information, such as age, gender, photo of person, except text description.

Choose the best teacher for you
1) I have 25 years of experience, where 10 of them I worked in UCL in English literature, other time I was a private teacher to high school students, all of them get in the first 20 ranked universities. I teach students how to use their knowledge in writing in other subjects and goals. I wrote a textbook that UCL and other UK universities are using as basic materials.

2) I have been teaching for 10 years, and I was head of high school that allowed me to form the best program that helped my school to achieve the 20th place in the country overall and the 5th in English language. I checked millions of works and I pointed out main features of best ones that also helped me to create this program that will develop writing skills of everyone. 90% of my students received 7,5 + IELTS and got offers from top ranked universities.

3) I am currently a student in Amsterdam university finishing the last year of master’s degree on Arab and English Literature and language. For now, I teach only on private, but I can assure that I can give required information to apply to any university and explain how that subject works in university.

4) I finished bachelor’s degree and was teaching in high school for 3 years; I wrote an article with research that became really famous in the field and that covers topics from a school to the master’s degree in university. Moreover, I had practice of one year in Brisbane university in Australia.
To another half of opponents copies of previous description are given but photo, gender and age are added as excess information.
What does the experiment represent?
Hypothesis
Experiment concentrated on showing irrational decision towards teachers when the photo is added. First 2 descriptions which belong to older ones are far better than for younger ones. So, expectable result of the first half of opponents with only text description would be about 85% voting for 1st or 2nd teacher.
However, with the photos added, the result is pending to change to 75% votes for 4th and 15 % for 3rd even though text description does not change, which will show the irrationality. These results would prove the point that agism and appearance overall is still significant factor influencing our choices.

Facts to pay attention to:

  • There are limit number of people who have been interviewed
  • The decision to do the irrational choice can be caused by different reasons, not only looks and age. For example, individual interest in the work of one of the teachers.
Results
The hypothesis was confirmed
From observation of results and graphs it is possible to acknowledge that there is noticeable correlation between choice towards teacher and appearance. First part of an experiment that is shown in the Graph.1. indicated that the best teacher is the 2nd one if to rely solely on the text description, 47% chose him. First 2 teachers dominate votes taking 73 % of them.

Graph.1.

Choice, based on text description only.

Second part of the experiment in Graph.2. where photos were added showed significantly different results. Half of predators preferred the 4th teacher although text description of him were chosen only by 14 % which fully proves that appearance affects. Votes for young female teacher #3 increased as well, but in smaller amount reaching 27 % of votes.

Graph.2.

Choice, based on text with photo.

Overall in Graph.3. it is clear to observe the strong correlation between photos and decisions that were made by opponents. People prefer to stick to the irrational choice of younger and more attractive men then older but who have more experience and depth knowledge in this area.

Graph.3.

The degree of influence of photography

Сonclusion
What we found out
From all results we can state that there is a link in choice of people and age of person, appearance. Irrationality in the choice with pictures proves the big influence of these factors.
 As a more attractive person the empathy will increase that will in the end influence the choice of this person as teacher, employee or friend.

Terekhova Alexandra
Behavioral Economics
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