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Do You Judge People By Their Cars?
Professor Says Everybody Does It
POSTED: 4:28 p.m. EDT April 22, 2004
MADISON, Wis. -- Everyone makes judgments about others based upon their hair, body shape and even their car, according to lesson in a University of Wisconsin archaeology class.
Archaeologist Sissel Schroeder gave students in her Anthropology 112 course the assignment of surveying a small number of cars in designated campus parking lots and using what they observed -- make, model, age, condition -- to draw conclusions about the gender and social standing of the owners.
"In archaeology, when you are dealing with the prehistoric world, there is no reality to check it against, so our inferences are always subject to reinterpretation," Schroeder said.
Schroeder said cars are like an ancient burial mound, a place where the archaeologist most frequently encounters relics that can indicate the social standing of some long-dead individuals about whom there is no other information.
"One of the dimensions of the archaeological record that people reflect on is burials," she said. "It reflects the way an individual was treated at death. It probably doesn't reflect every dimension of their persona, but we tend to make our assumptions about status from graves."
Certain car customizations, leather seats and tinted windows, in particular, were attributed by the students to higher-income drivers. If the car was dirty or dinged and dented, the owner was believe to be at the lower end of the socio-economic heap.
When students were forced to assign gender to each car, they fell back up typical stereotypes. Students found some traits for male-owned vehicles:
The interior of your car is a mess, but the outside has recently been waxed.
It's a stick shift.
The customizations have to do with the engine or exhaust system.
For female:
The interior is clean.
It's a minivan.
If it has any children's items inside.
Schroeder said the point of the assignment was to warn students against making judgments based on fragmentary data.
Schroeder said cars are like an ancient burial mound, a place where the archaeologist most frequently encounters relics that can indicate the social standing of some long-dead individuals about whom there is no other information.
"One of the dimensions of the archaeological record that people reflect on is burials," she said. "It reflects the way an individual was treated at death. It probably doesn't reflect every dimension of their persona, but we tend to make our assumptions about status from graves."
Certain car customizations, leather seats and tinted windows, in particular, were attributed by the students to higher-income drivers. If the car was dirty or dinged and dented, the owner was believe to be at the lower end of the socio-economic heap.
When students were forced to assign gender to each car, they fell back up typical stereotypes. Students found some traits for male-owned vehicles:
The interior of your car is a mess, but the outside has recently been waxed.
It's a stick shift.
The customizations have to do with the engine or exhaust system.
For female:
The interior is clean.
It's a minivan.
If it has any children's items inside.
Schroeder said the point of the assignment was to warn students against making judgments based on fragmentary data.Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
