Female strangers get better response rates when e-mailing professors

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/04/a_not_very_happy_observation_a.html

by andreyf • 16 years ago

51 39 16 years ago

thelastpsychiatrist.com

jpwagner• 16 years ago

corollary: female strangers get better [any form of communication] response rates from [anybody]

JoachimSchipper2• 16 years ago

How does that follow? Or do you intend to say that the observed effect is just a facet of a more general effect?

axod• 16 years ago

I'd say that in general:

  * Women are *far* better at communication than men
  * Men are more likely to respond to women, than
    women are likely to respond to men.

I don't know who this is news to though.

jrockway3• 16 years ago

Try it on IRC sometime. You'll find that within seconds, pretending to be a girl is instantly advantageous. Just don't overdo it.

wallflower• 16 years ago

iDog

http://www.unc.edu/depts/jomc/academics/dri/idog.html

teilo3• 16 years ago

It is just as likely that female professors are more likely to respond to female questions because they expect that females are more likely than males to listen to the answer. Why do we have to jump right to a presumption of negative sexual bias?

sliverstorm• 16 years ago

> Why do we have to jump right to a presumption of negative sexual bias?

Track record.

rguzman• 16 years ago

Isn't expecting that females to be more likely to listen than males a negative sexual bias?

pyre3• 16 years ago

I think the point GP was trying to make is that this isn't necessarily a case of male professors being nice to women just because they are attracted to them (or assume that they might be attractive) and that there is a possibility of sex. (or something to that effect)

It's still 'sexism' if a professor responds better to female students than male students because he perceives female students as being more receptive and grateful for the help. But not necessarily in a negative "I'm hoping to get laid" sort of way.

dirkstoop• 16 years ago

Maybe she (he?) has stumbled upon the single most important mechanism by which any single gender dominated industry self-compensates.

(I'm assuming here that - since the author emailed mostly males - this field is predominantly male; I have no facts to back up that assumption)

Would love to see a similar study into replies to emails from male/female aliases to professionals in a predominantly female field.

leif2• 16 years ago

I've been reading this blog (really, letting it pile up in google reader) for some time now, and though I can't point you to a specific post, I'm pretty sure I remember the author being a he.

__bjoernd• 16 years ago

The post's comments describe a row of useful explanations for these facts apart from sexual focus.

leif2• 16 years ago

My first interpretation of this data is that professors are trying to encourage young women to get interested in their field, and therefore subconsciously giving them more resources, but that is probably because there are so few women in the fields I study. It would be nice to know what areas of research contained the studied professors, but I don't want to read all those comments.

Also, a sample size of several dozen? That doesn't sound like a lot to me.

jongraehl• 16 years ago

Several dozen is plenty if the effect is strong. He claims it is.

alexgartrell2• 16 years ago

So I've TA'ed for a little while now and I think the answer isn't anything fundamental how women are regarded or how man are being biased against.

Men rarely, if ever, act as grateful as women when you help them. There's a long list of potential reasons for this, but I've found it nearly universally to be the case.

Even though it's not politically correct, you're more likely to help the person who will thank you sincerely for the help as opposed to the guy who feels like you owe it to him (also often the case).

chops• 16 years ago

My experience is not in line with yours. In my experience, answering calls and support questions, I've gotten plenty of guys who are grateful for the help. They might not gush about it, but they almost universally offer thanks for any help I give, it's just more in the guy-like "Thanks a lot, dude, I really appreciate it."

On the flip-side, in my experience (I run a MMO guild hosting site, so this is a demographic that's rife with drama), the women I've talked with have a much stronger tendency to get WAY vindictive. I find harshly written emails (on that rare occasion) tend to come from women moreso than men. The men I've helped, when sending an email concerning something like billing or whatnot, tend to be more chill about things "Hey, I noticed X and it doesn't seem to be in line with what I was expecting. What's up?", vs the emails I've gotten from women for similar issues that go something like "What the hell? I don't know what you guys are doing, but if this issue isn't resolved immediately, I'm going to dispute the charge" (mind you, that might be an initial correspondence).

None of this is universal, but those are some of the tendencies I've experienced.

greenlblue• 16 years ago

That's been my experience as well. Guys are more arrogant and feel more entitled than girls and overall I have noticed that girls are more willing to put in the effort and do the work to get a good grade whereas guys will come to you with a sob story and all their initial enthusiasm about doing better will fizzle out within a week.

gaius• 16 years ago

By "act grateful" you mean, she will (deliberately) mimic the signals that she finds you attractive, making you momentarily feel good about yourself. It's the same as when the pretty waitress flirts with you. She flirts with everyone, and gets good tips.

A man will simply say "cheers" and buy you a pint. What do you expect him to do?

alexgartrell2• 16 years ago

Actually, I mean that she will say "Thank you so much!" on the way out of the door.

If I was going to TA to get hit on, I would probably TA something besides Introduction to Computer Systems. The girls I've dated tend to be more attractive than the girls who show up at office hours, and I'm deliberately cold to women who hit on me at office hours because it's insulting (and I'm kind of a dick).

And if ever there was a student who bought me a beer, s/he would be the first one to get help at office hours without a doubt. The problem is that the men tend to interrupt other students getting help, call for my attention across the room while I'm busy with something else, and just act with a general sense of entitled arrogance.

eplanit• 16 years ago

And this is a surprise to anyone?

suckafree2• 16 years ago

Of course male professors answer females at a higher response rate. Those in the academia world rarely have hot wives. Professors get married later in life (this has to do with them having no lives outside of the lab). They then have to settle for less than what they want so they marry an intelligent woman who is in that 4-6.5 range on a scale from 1-10. And when young melissamiller comes emailing, she serves as a welcome distraction to grading papers. Stop making this out to be a big deal.

jrockway3• 16 years ago

You have broken the record for most unfounded generalizations in one paragraph.

suckafree2• 16 years ago

Just because I don't have fancy science to back it up doesn't mean it's not true.

growingconcern• 16 years ago

In other interesting news: kids like candy.

pyre3• 16 years ago

Contrary to popular belief though, babies much prefer milk (breast or formula) to candy. So finding a baby with candy to 'take' may prove to be a difficult proposition (for varying definitions of 'baby', I suppose).

klipt• 16 years ago

Candy in the possession of a baby is also likely to be covered in drool. Considering its inexpensiveness, why not just buy candy?

fauigerzigerk• 16 years ago

If you combine that with the proportion of females in high level academic jobs you get a pretty clear picture: Females are encouraged to ask experts for help whilst somehow being discouraged from becoming experts themselves.

mnemonicfx2• 16 years ago

For females, don't get too excited.

If you're pretty, sexy, and all that, they will continue to respond you, and supported you in every endeavor. But, if you're not pretty, you would be judged only by your appearance. Not your brain.

jamesbritt• 16 years ago

Really? Everyone?

Can you back up this gigantic generalization, or is this simply rampant cynicism?

I know people of both sexes who judge people on appearances, but most folks I've dealt with don't let that get in the way.

mnemonicfx2• 16 years ago

Isn't that the point of this article?

Female strangers get better response rates when e-mailing professors

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