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Volume 12: Number 1: Article 1
Gender Differences in Human/Machine Anomalies
Brenda J. Dunne, Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, School
of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton,
NJ 08544-5263
Assessment of 270 individual databases produced by 135 human operators
in five local and four remote human/machine anomalies experiments conducted
in the PEAR laboratory between 1979 and 1993 reveals several significant
gender-related differences in performance. Although the 140 databases
produced by 62 females are much larger on average than the 130 produced
by 73 males, the male average results display significantly stronger
correlations with the operators' pre-recorded intentions to shift the
output distribution means of a variety of random devices to higher or
lower values. Both groups demonstrate greater success in the high-intention
efforts than in the low, but whereas a majority of the males succeed
in both directions of effort, producing intentional results that are
relatively symmetrical in comparison with their empirical baselines,
most of the females' low-intention results are opposite to intention.
The baseline data generated by the males largely concur with calibration
and theoretical expectations, while the females tend to higher than
chance values. The female data also frequently display larger score
distribution variances. These disparities are more pronounced in five
local experiments than in four remote databases. No gender differences
appear in two experiments that yield null overall results, suggesting
that the gender-related patterns observed in the successful experiments
may be indicative characteristics of the primary human/machine anomalies.
Keywords: gender, human/machine interactions, engineering anomalies
research
FULL TEXT:
Gender Differences in Human/Machine Anomalies
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