Right Left Preference

The purpose of this experiment is to find out whether right handed people are more likely to choose a product if it is placed on the right of them and if left-handed people are more likely to choose a product if it is placed on the left of them.

Research Questions

• Why are some people right handed and some people left handed?
• Why are there more right handed people than left handed people?
• Does being right or left handed affect which side of the classroom a teacher calls on?
• What is the procedure in a blind taste test?
• How do companies use blind taste testing to promote their products?

Some studies have suggested that there is a correlation between which hand a person writes with and which side of their body they pay more attention to. Teachers who are right-handed, for example, have been found to select students on their right more often than students on their left. An awareness of this tendency can help people learn to compensate for it. Determining if there is a connection between the hand a person writes with and which product they prefer may also have significance in the realm of taste tests. If there is a strong correlation, the results of any blind taste test may be fundamentally flawed.

Materials:

• 6 or more bottles of soda, all the same brand and flavor
• 200-400 mini Dixie cups
• A table
• 100-200 copies of a simple questionnaire

Experimental Procedure:

1. Completely remove the labels from 6 two liter bottles of any brand of soda. Make sure all of these sodas are the exact same flavor and brand.
2. Label three of the bottles “Sample A” and three of them “Sample B.”
3. Set up a table in an open area at your school or another public place.
4. Place the Sample A sodas on the left and the Sample B on the right from the perspective of the participants in your study.
5. Conduct a fake taste test.
6. Tell people that you are comparing two popular brands of soda to see which one most people prefer in a blind taste test. It may help to have a sign that also explains this.
7. Pour very small samples of soda into clean Dixie cups for each participant.
8. Participants are to come up to the table, taste Sample A, then Sample B.
9. Participants fill out a short questionnaire, such as the one bellow. Make sure you questionnaire has at least five questions so that it isn’t obvious that you are gathering information about whether they are right or left handed.
10. You will need to make sure your study includes a large enough sample size of left handed people. If you find that the results have included input from only a small number of left-handed people, you will need to collect more data.
11. Analyze the data you have collected to see if there is a correlation between which soda a person chooses and whether the person is right or left handed. 

1. Do you prefer Sample A or Sample B.
2. How strongly do you prefer this soda over the other (scale of 1-5).
3. Age:
4. Gender:
5. Are you Right or Left Handed:
6. What is your favorite brand of soda?

Terms/Concepts: Predisposition; Right handed; Left handed; Ambidextrous; Genetic trait; Learned behavior

References: