Research Methods - Short Paper Option 2

Cooper: Research Methods

Short Paper Option 2: (Remember, you must do one of the three short paper assignments

during the semester.)

Due: Tuesday, April 14

Approximate Length: 3 typed, doubled-spaced pages

For this paper, you must do the following:

1. Briefly summarize the findings and main arguments of the Hortacsu, Hitsch, and Ariely study cited in the handout from Freakonomics). (Approx. 3/4 page)

2. Go to a dating website such as Yahoo Personals, Match.com, Date.com, etc that appeals to a broad audience, rather than a website that appeals to a particular group. (Also, please do not spend money doing this: only join/search the site if it is free to do so.) Randomly choose 20 male and 20 female user/profiles between the ages of 26 and 35. Choose three variables (height, body type, political views, etc.) that you can find on both male and female user profiles and write down the results for each of your profiles. Then do the following:

a) Explain your method for randomly choosing the profiles. b) Summarize your findings. For example: What was the average height of the males and females in your sample? What percent of males/female said their body type was fit, etc? c) Did your findings represent a normal distribution of scores? Were there any interesting outliers? Also, it is okay if some profiles/users did not answer a given question. Just be sure to note how many people did this when you summarize your findings. (Approx. 3/4 – 1 1/4 pages)

3. Would you say that your sample is representative of a) single dating website users between 26 and 35? b) What about all single internet users between 26 and 35? In other words, would you say you were able to get a random sample of a) the population of single dating website users between 26 and 35 and b) the population of single internet users between 26 and 35? Why or why not? In general, how honest do you think people are on these dating sites, especially with respect to the variables you have chosen? Be sure to cite your findings, as well as Hortascu, Hirsch, and Ariely’s, to answer this question. (Approx. 1 – 1 1/4 page)