Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Men, women, and VCRs

I'd like to see the original study, but I can't find it online. It's mentioned all over the place, for example here and here:

In a Yale University study, 68% of men asked to program a VCR using written instructions were successful, compared to just 16% of women.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What they don't mention is that in real life the men won't use the manual, making the actual success rates 5%/16%.

JimAroo said...

I also found a reference that said that 80% of people couldn't program the VCR. That means that the 68% success rate for men translates to the fact that only 13.6% of men can program it as opposed to 3.2% of women. This is still a big difference but one that has little value in differentiating skill levels. As a group, we all stink at this task.

Rachel said...

Venite, you crack me up. And wow, if 80% can't do it, I feel justified in my own feelings of insecurity.