•  Chivalry in its modern sense applies to courtesies a

man might pay to a woman. Opening the door for a woman is one of those courtesies. As our society continues to evolve, acts of chivalry are less common. What had once been a code for an old-fashioned society has become a rare behavior in the modern world.

•  This gesture is interesting to study because it indicates societal evolution in chivalry and gender roles. By understanding that door-holding behavior is an indication for the presence or lack of chivalry in our society today, we can better comprehend how the society is changing and its effect on men and women.

Aiman Chughtai, Lisa Li, and Miriam Sedrak

Macaulay Honors College at the College of Staten Island at the City University of New York

Professor Sekerina Group #5

Women Are Just as Likely to Exhibit Door-Holding Behavior as Men!

•  Our hypothesis was not supported through the observations. The results, instead supported the research article (Yoder et al. 2002).

•  Gender has no significance on door-holding behavior because the results showed that women are just as likely to hold the door as men.

•  From the data collected, we have come to conclude that chivalry and the traditional role of gentleman to hold the door is not as common in today’s society as previously thought.

•  Nevertheless, further research will need to be conducted due to the possibility of confounds such as culture and mannerism variability.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

Participants •  N = 59 (men n = 31, women n = 28) •  College students from the College of Staten

Island Design, Materials, & Procedure Pilot Study: •  All 3 observers sat together on the Thursday

before the study was conducted in order to set the criteria to judge door-holding behavior.

•  The pilot study allowed observers to conclude that door-passing was not a form of door-holding behavior

Design: •  Location: College of Staten Island Library

entrance •  Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays during Club

Hours (2:30-3:00pm) •  Number of Trials: 3

Material: Notebook and pen for recording

This study was conducted to observe a common courtesy that has been associated ubiquitously with gentlemen – holding a door for a person to pass before him. However, over time, the door-holding maneuver has been a gesture that both genders have adopted into modern culture. Previous research has shown that in today’s society, men and women exhibit door-holding behavior just as frequently (Yoder et al., 2002). We decided to conduct an observational study that showed the frequency of door-holding behavior between men and women in the College of Staten Island. For our hypothesis, we predicted that men would exhibit a higher frequency of door-holding behavior, contrary to the research article. Throughout three trials, we found that out of 59 participants (31 male and 28 female), 47% of male participants and 17% of female participants held the door. Our data showed insignificant results leading us to conclude that men and women exhibit door-holding behavior as a common courtesy just as frequently in today’s society.

•  The chi- square value (χ2 =0.11) showed that the results were not significant. •  Our results support the research article, which states that there is no significant difference

in frequency in exhibiting door-holding behavior between men and women.

RESULTS

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Men Women

Freq

uenc

y

Held door Did not hold door

DISCUSSION

METHOD

REFERENCES Yoder, J., Hogue, M., Newman, R., Metz, L., & LaVigne, T. (2002). Exploring Moderators of Gender Differences: Contextual Differences in Door-Holding Behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32(8), 1682-1686.

_______________________________ Degrees of freedom 1 Pearson chi-square 2.626 p 0.1051 Corrected chi-square 1.727 Corrected p 0.1889

Men Women Held door 10 4

Did not hold door

21 24

Gender as a Factor in Door-Holding Behavior

Statistical results Contingency table

Procedure: •  Each observer sat outside of the library

entrance and created a tally chart. •  Observers noted down male and female

participants who held the door and did not hold the door for a stranger behind them.

Predictor Variable: •  Gender (Man or Woman) Response Variable: Holding/not holding the door for a stranger •  Operational Definition for “Stranger”: A person

who the door holder did not recognize by gestures such as a wave, smile, handshake, hug etc.

•  Operational Definition for “Considerable distance from door”: Person approaching door holder was at least 4 feet away from the door, a distance preventing this person from holding the door by him/herself.