Effect of Gender on Car Repairs
For your edification and amusement:
I teach an experimental psychology class and ask our not-brain-dead students to design and run an experiment. One came up with the idea of looking at the effect of gender on car repairs. Tammy disconnected the ground wire for the "check engine light" on her still-under-warrantee Kia so the light was on. She then took the car to 10 different repair shops, and then had her 6'4" macho boyfriend Corey take the car a week or two later to the same shops. Here are the results:
| Shop | Diagnosis for Tammy w/cost | for Corey the Male w/cost | ||
| 1 | alternator | $385 | wire loose | $0 |
| 2 | O2 sensor & catalytic converter | $320* | same diagnosis | $135 |
| 3 | fuel injection | $565 | wire loose | $10 |
| 4 | transmission | $2400 | wire loose | $0 |
| 5 | wire loose | $0 | wire loose** | $0 |
| 6 | water pump | $765 | water hose | $25 |
| 7 | O2 sensor | $283 | ?? "return to dealer" | |
| 8 | head gasket | $300 | loose wire | $0 |
| 9 | faulty exhaust | $1345 | loose wire | $0 |
| 10 | bad starter | $375 | loose wire | $0 |
* the mechanic offered to cut her a deal if she would go out with
him. When she said she was married the mechanic said "So? You're
still good looking"
** the mechanic said he recognized the car from before (which lead
Tammy to increase the time between visits).
These were the same mechanics/service writers. The first was even a female (no honor among the same sex). What Tammy is going to try next is to see if a female with knowledge of auto mechanics will be as vulnerable as a naive one (before she first got her driverŐs license, she had to help her father rebuild an engine). This is probably well known from anecdotal evidence, but here is the same conclusion from a more scientific study.
Peter Gram
Dept. Behavioral Sciences
Pensacola Junior College
Florida
