Intro

It's rare in the psych world to actually see something useful. This is not the typical anger post you skim, jerk off to the outrage porn, and move on. There is a VERY distinct set of lessons here that will improve your critical thinking.

The Study

"Confederate" - An actor who participates in a psychological experiment pretending to be a subject but in actuality working for the researcher (also known as a "stooge").

The Salty Lemonade study is really simple - have a confederate introduce lemonade she claims to have personally made to 5 year old children.

Have confederate insist she is quite invested in how good the lemonade is, and encourage a set of boys and girls to taste test it and give feedback so she can serve it to other people.

The lemonade is salted to taste like absolute shit.

The Results

The Boys (Who aren't named)

[#1] "Oh no, that is disgusting"

(CONFEDERATE) [with an exasperated expression] "What do you mean, you don't like it?"

[#1] "Oh no, it's too sweet".

[#2] "I can't have any more, it's so disgusting"

[#3] "Makes me sick."

[#3] "I just don't want to drink it".

The Girls (who get names)

[ALICE] "It was a teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeny bit too much lemon. I loved the lemon inside it. I think it's incredible but I don't like the lemon in it"

[TIARA] "I loved it but I didn't like the lemon in it!"

[TIARA in private interview] "I pretended I did like it so it made her happy"

(CONFEDERATE) "Alice, what do you think? Is it alright, should I give it to everyone? I mean, I think it's delicious"

[ALICE] "Even though that I like it, can I please have a drink of water though?"


What Did The Experiment Show?

From a VERY young age, there is a clear difference between boys and girls. Even at 3mos old, girls care significantly more about the other party's feelings.

The purpose of this study is "who is higher in empathy"? The results are very clear.


What Do The Findings Say?

Here's where things start to get fucking weird. I heard of this study from NPR of all places, which bothered to actually bring in the experts who made the following conclusions:

  • From a VERY early age, girls learn to use empathy to manipulate people

  • This is especially the case with perceived "superiors" or when others' experiences are at stake (recall the Confederate solicited opinions so she could serve it to more people)

  • Boys follow none of this chicanery and will simply say the lemonade sucks because they do not consider the feelings of the Confederate in determining whether the lemonade is good


Reactions To The Study

NPR pundits of course closed the segment with "shouldn't boys be treated more like defective girls and learn empathy?" It was uncanny how stereotypically this was expressed on the program, but I can't link it because it was live. Proof exists somewhere. Props to anyone who can find it.

Here is the youtube video which gives ZERO ANALYSIS OF WHY ANY DIFFERENCES EXIST IN THE GENDERS.

They barely even interview the actual conducting psychologists! The only snippet you get is "the girls are clearly more thoughtful about Confederate's feelings"! The most important part of an experiment is its conclusion.

The Standard offered a take, but only got this far on empathy before changing the subject:

The boys practically spit it out immediately, screwing up their little faces and saying, "That’s disgusting!" The girls are far more diplomatic about it, with one of them saying, "I think this is incredible, but could I please have a glass of water?" The girls are miles ahead in terms of empathy, but how are they for honesty? Do these differences carry on in adult life as we know it?

What I must commend the Standard for though, is interviewing the researchers. Here is a salient point:

"We are talking about 5-year-olds here so I think we have to remain in context," says Dr. Kilbey. "We have to resist the urge to extrapolate and say 'Therefore this means that…' Because there’s quite a lot of developing that goes on between being 5 and being an adult. What it tells us I think is what our mechanisms of influence are. I don’t know how we can predict how these children will behave as adults but what we can say is that they are shaping their own peer group and that peer group is shaping them, in a kind of cycle. If the peer group they’re in are confirming the gender stereotypes they understand, then yes they will carry that onto adult life – unless there is a different path taken. Then absolutely you can see that the train has left the station to where this developmental journey is going."


Conclusions

  1. Men are lower empathy than women. This starts at the age of boys and girls.

  2. Regardless of your feelings or opinions on what's right and wrong, the study IS A SINGLE PIECE OF EVIDENCE THAT MAY reinforce that boys naturally value their individual observations over all else

  3. Go look for yourself - poor journalism, rags, and amateur psychologists make borderline causal conclusions (like suggesting boys need xyz or girls do xyz because of external forces) without consulting the actual scientists behind the study

  4. While both group behaviors suggest there is a big "follow the leader" bias, it's interesting to see groups of 3 follow both their respective leaders.

  5. Isn't it weird the video, which by far garnered more net views than anything else, gave the girls names but not a single male was named other than the researcher?