Thursday, October 21, 2010

Me, the Social Scientist

Thursday is my day out for lunch, and I always go to the same neighborhood pub. Today there was a group of 20 somethings in there and I wasn't really paying attention to them until one man came over to me with a stack of dollar bills that he was waving and said that whoever guesses closest to the number of bills that he would pay their lunch. So I looked at them -- my thought process was when I cleaned out my wallet and purse, where I had lots of singles stuffed in various places and ended up with a bunch of them, that it was always fewer than I thought... so I looked at the stack and guessed 73.

Unbeknownst to me, the other woman had guessed 75 so she started yelling asking if "Price is Right" rules apply -- meaning closest without going over. Meanwhile, the third woman in this came out of the restroom and it turns out, she guessed 74. So three women guessed 73, 74 and 75.

The men all guessed in the 90s, including the bartender who told me that I had guessed too low since every day he counts a stack of singles so he knows his business.

When the bills were counted, the final number was 74. Would anyone believe me if I said that was the first number that popped into my mind but I changed it to 73?

I thought it was so interesting that three females, independently guessed so closely and so accurately.

If I were a social scientist, I would wonder if men over guess quantities? Or was this just a one-off fluke?

The P.S. to this story is that they wanted me to come over with them and do tequilla shots. They were just nice kids (Oh God, I'm old to say something like that!) and I was thinking that is something I NEVER do... waste the day away doing tequilla shots and there's just a tiny bit of me that wishes I had some of that desire in me.

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