11/15/2007

Men get their coffee earlier than women

Here is an small-size survey conducted in eight coffee shops in the Boston area. Researchers want to know how long it took men and women to be served. The results:
men get their coffee 20 seconds earlier than women. (There is also evidence that black people wait longer than white people, the young wait longer than the old, and the ugly wait longer than the beautiful. But these effects are statistically not as persuasive.)
Not sure if this is because men are more decisive orderer than women, or coffee shops' staff feel more implicit psychological pressure to meet the needs of the male customers.

4 comments:

Bilbo said...

...or it could be another silly, cooked-up statistic designed to "prove" that one group is better or worse treated than another, thereby selling more newspapers and TV ad space.

Tracey said...

Yeah, but have you ever heard the drinks women order? "Non-fat, sugar free vanilla, latte, extra hot." I bet that has a lot to do with it...

Mike said...

I think what might be slowing women down is their socialness. I can see a guy going up and not saying but giving the impression that "I want my stuff so I can get out of here". (no smiles)
Whereas a gal might give the impression of "Hi, how are you today? How's work going today?" Etc. (happily smiling)
Not all males or all females are like what I'm saying but an average over a large group could make up the 20 second difference. And giving someone the impression your in a hurry might speed up the service just a bit.

Anonymous said...

That's interesting.

But out of curiosity, how would you compare the ugly with the beautiful...