Tipping Case

INTRODUCTION

Our observation project is a product of inductive research based off of our unstructured observation. In our unstructured observation we were at a bar and noticed that many more males were tipping the bartender then females. When we decided to carry out our actually research for the project we wanted it to be an ethnographic study. We wanted to study people in a natural setting, but if we saw people we knew or if we were approached by people were asking us what we were doing we would omit their behaviors from our research because it could potentially influence their actions. Through these observations we developed the hypothesis that males were more likely to tip a bartender then females were.

METHODS

Sampling:

We conducted our research in the Dark Horse Tavern in downtown Cortland, New York. We chose to make our observations on Monday night because there are drink/food specials, as well as football, and we believed this would draw a college student crowd to the bar. On September 19th we chose to carry out the research between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. The bar was filled with a variety of age groups, so in an attempt to narrow down our sample we chose to observe people that appeared to be college students. In order to prevent our presence from tampering with their actual behavior we chose to omit any person that approached us with questions about what we were doing and also people we know that were aware of the current study.

Independent Variable:

The independent variable of the study was the person's sexual orientation.

Dependent Variable:

The dependent variable of the study was whether or not the individual left a tip for the bartender when they received their drink. We chose this as our dependent variable because we had previously attended the Dark Horse Tavern on a Monday night and while we were at the bar we noticed a significant difference in tipping patterns between males and females. Since we had previously observed this behavior our dependent variable was a product of inductive research. Based off this data we were able to form a theory that ultimately led us to creating our hypothesis stated above.

Conducting the Observation:

There was a moderate amount of people in the bar when we went, but it was not as difficult to make our observations as we had originally thought. The bar was in the shape of a rectangle so we were able to sit at opposite ends of the bar while maintaining a near perfect view of our subjects tipping. The major problem with our study was that we were each approached multiple times by people asking us what we were doing. However, when we answered their questions we made sure not to tell them that we were