For my chapter one first impression, I chose the mini myth titled “Do Waitresses Get Bigger Tips When They Have Bigger Breasts”. Being a female, I wasn’t surprised when the conclusion of their experiment was a yes.
While carrying out the experiment, they had Kari work the same three shifts at the coffee shop on three separate days. Each day, Kari wore the same clothes, wig, makeup, and gave the same level of service to all of the customers. The only thing that changed each shift, was her breast size. At the end of the experiment, the days that Kari wore sizes small and medium, men tipped an average of 90 cents making the total about 72 dollars. The day they had Kari wear the triple D, tips from male customers increased by 30% and the total for that day was 92 dollars.
I found one strength and one weakness that each stood out to me. The weakness being while they were viewing the security footage they continuously put emphasis on the way men were looking at Kari and checking her out. While the purpose was to gauge the difference the breast size made, I feel as though they still could have left those parts out. Reacting to men checking her out had no effect on the experiment. The one strength I found though, was how they didn’t exclude the female customers from the experiment, and kept those tips separate. I was a little surprised to see that the female customers’ tips also increased by 40% on the day Kari increased her breast size to the triple D.
Carly's College Blog 
Hi Carly! I’m glad you pointed out that the researchers not excluding women from this experiment was a strength. The title of the experiment was “Do Waitresses Get Bigger Tips When They Have Bigger Breasts,” not “Do Men Give Bigger Tips to Waitresses When They Have Bigger Breasts.” I personally wish the results weren’t fully separated, since there are women attrated to women as well as men who aren’t attracted to women. All of these results would make the most sense together, unless they individually asked each tipper if they were attracted to women or not. You mention a weakness of the researchers commenting on men staring at the waitress. I would be interested to know why you consider this a weakness, since it wasn’t crucial to the experiment, just actions that the researchers were observing on. What would you have wanted for this to be a stronger study?
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