Exercise 1.89 on page 42 described a recent study which examines the impact of the color red on how attractive men perceive women to be. In the study, men were randomly divided into two groups and were asked to rate the attractiveness of women on a scale of 1 (not at all attractive) to 9 (extremely attractive). Men in one group were shown pictures of women on a white background while the men in the other group were shown the same pictures of women on a red background. The results are shown in Table 6.18 and the data for both groups are reasonably symmetric with no outliers. To determine the possible effect size of the red background over the white, find and interpret a 90% confidence interval for the difference in mean attractiveness rating.

Table 6.18

Exercise 1.89 on page 42

A recent study examined the impact of the color red on how attractive men perceive women to be. In the study, men were randomly divided into two groups and were asked to rate the attractiveness of women on a scale of 1 (not at all attractive) to 9 (extremely attractive). One group of men were shown pictures of women on a white background and the other group were shown the same pictures of women on a red background. The men who saw women on the red background rated them as more attractive. All participants and those showing the pictures and collecting the data were not aware of the purpose of the study.

Color Red 15 7.2 0.6 White 12 6.1 0.4