Poll: A Social Experiment?

[The Controvert]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

[Paranoid Randroid]

1) Tupac
2) John Candy
3) John Leguizamo
4) Margaret Cho

You know, those are *really* weird answers for me.

[sandra_nz]

1. Name a black celebrity
Oprah Winfrey
2. Name a white celebrity
George Clooney
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
J Lo
4. Name an Asian celebrity
Jackie Chan

[ultrafilter]

Black celebrity: Tyra Banks
White celebrity: Jessica Simpson
Hispanic celebrity: Salma Hayek
Asian celebrity: Lucy Liu

[Kalhoun]

Bill Cosby

Kyra Sedgewick

Sonya Braga

Sandra Oh

[Justin Credible]

[QUOTE=The Controvert]Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity

Halle Berry and Denzel both popped into my mind at the same time.

2. Name a white celebrity

I don't know why, but Johnny Depp was the first person to spring to mind.

3. Name a hispanic celebrity

That guy that used to be on SNL...Horatio Sands? I then thought of Jorge Garcia.

4. Name an Asian celebrity

mmm...Lucy Liu...I love you.

[Jackknifed Juggernaut]

Katt Williams
Roger Clemens
Paul Rodriguez (no idea why)
Jackie Chan

[Shodan]

1. Name a black celebrity - Tiger Woods
2. Name a white celebrity - Cameron Diaz
3. Name a hispanic celebrity- Jennifer Lopez
4. Name an Asian celebrity- Bruce LeeOK, now I read the thread.

Regards,
Shodan

[Antinor01]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

Oprah Winfrey
Sarah Brightman
George Lopez
Margaret Cho (I saw the first response, and got her name stuck in my head!)

[BoBettie]

1. Name a black celebrity Wesley Snipes
2. Name a white celebrity Brad Pitt
3. Name a hispanic celebrity Jennifer Lopez
4. Name an Asian celebrity Jackie Chan

[Angel of the Lord]

1. Bill Cosby
2. Paris Hilton
3. Carlos Mencia
4. Jet Li

[Blank Slate]

Will Smith
Dennis Hopper (I have no idea)
John Leguizamo
Sung Hi Lee ;)

[NinetyWt]

Stevie Wonder ( :confused: )
Paris Hilton (Gah! )
George Lopez
Margaret Cho

What a weird list. I suppose it's because my son watches TV while I cook, and these were all on TV over the past few days.

[Freudian Slit]

They don't have to be alive, right?

1. Will Smith
2. Tom Hanks
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Bruce Lee

[Beadalin]

1. Will Smith
2. Harrison Ford
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Michelle Yeoh

[Duhkecco]

Eddie Murphy
Billy Crystal
George Lopez
Sandra Oh
(Should have been Margaret Cho?)

[Mrs. Cake]

1 - Denzel Washington
2 - Sean Connery
3 - Edward James Olmos
4 - Sandra Oh

[delphica]

1. black celebrity: Will Smith
2. white celebrity: Drew Barrymore
3. hispanic celebrity: Salma Hayek
4. Asian celebrity: Chow Young Fat

[Flander]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity


1. Tiger Woods
2. Johnny Depp
3. Carlos Mencia
4. Lucy Lu

[Engineer Dude]

1) Denzel Washington
2) Tom Cruise
3) Jennifer Lopez
4) Jackie Chan

[3acresandatruck]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1. George Washington Carver
2. Albert Einstein
3. Hernando deSoto
4. Admiral Yamamoto

[a bee]

1. Name a black celebrity - Bill Cosby
2. Name a white celebrity - Jay Leno
3. Name a hispanic celebrity - Jay Lo
4. Name an Asian celebrity - Jackie Chan

[Oredigger77]

1. Name a black celebrity
Eddie Murphy
2. Name a white celebrity
Ron White
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
Carlos Mencia
4. Name an Asian celebrity
Jackie Chan

[pravnik]

1. Name a black celebrity - Sidney Poitier
2. Name a white celebrity - Brad Pitt
3. Name a hispanic celebrity - Cheech Marin
4. Name an Asian celebrity - Margaret Cho

[The Chao Goes Mu]

1. Samuel L. Jackson

2. Jodie Foster

3. George Lopez

4. Margaret Cho

[The Lovely Margo Lane]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1. Denzel Washington
2. Paris Hilton
3. George Lopez
4. Bai Ling

Don't ask me what that means. I'm almost ashamed of them, but thinking "celebrity" does odd things, and I don't want to lie and mess up your experiment.

[Rushgeekgirl]

1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Adam Sandler
3. Jorge Garcia
4. Daniel Dae Kim

[Elret]

1. Lauren Hill
2. Bobby Flay
3. Jimmy Smits
4. Yoon Jin Kim

[bannerrefugee]

1. Name a black celebrity
Will Smith
2. Name a white celebrity
Bill Clinton
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
Gloria Estaphan
4. Name an Asian celebrity
Jackie Chan

That’s funny-they are all performers except the white guy.

[maladroit]

1. Will Smith
2. Mel Gibson
3. George Lopez
4. Margaret Cho

[Zebra]

1 Denzel Washington
2 Paris Hilton
3 Jennifer Lopez
4 Lucy Lu

[brickbacon]

1. Denzel Washington
2. Tom Hanks
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Lucy Lui

[Silence of the clams]

1. Barak Obama? He is kind of black.

2. Hillary Clinton!

3. hispanic... um, that girl with the hips.. Shakira!

4. asian celebrity? Kim Jong Il?

[Lazlo]

1. Will Smith
2. Johnny Depp
3. Edward James Olmos
4. Jet Li

[Viridiana]

Wesley Snipes
Tom Beringer
Luis Guzman
Beat Takeshi

[Shagnasty]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity

Samuel L Jackson

2. Name a white celebrity

Tom Cruise

3. Name a hispanic celebrity

Jennifer Lopez

4. Name an Asian celebrity

Jackie Chan

[Walkabout]

1. Name a black celebrity
Bill Cosby

2. Name a white celebrity
Brad Pitt

3. Name a hispanic celebrity
George Lopez

4. Name an Asian celebrity
Lucy Liu

[Abby_Emma_Sasha]

1. Sidney Poitier
2. David Caruso
3. Javier Bardem
4. Eric D. Steinberg (yes, he's Asian)

[Cervaise]

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity<not reading thread>

1. Spike Lee
2. Barbra Streisand
3. Marc Anthony
4. George Takei

[Purgatory Creek]

1. Whoopi Goldberg
2. Jennifer Aniston
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Bai Ling

[Hal Briston]

"No thinking allowed" responses:

1. Name a black celebrity - Eddie Murphy
2. Name a white celebrity - Tom Cruise
3. Name a hispanic celebrity - George Lopez
4. Name an Asian celebrity - Lisa Ling

[miss elizabeth]

1. Mr. Chuck (local to Memphis, has a kids show)
2. Mr. Rogers
3. Maria on Sesame Street
4. Alan on Sesame Street

Yes, I am watching PBS with my daughter, why do you ask?

[ShibbOleth]

1. Name a black celebrity - Tracy Morgan / Beyonce
2. Name a white celebrity - Brad Pitt / Scarlett Johanssen
3. Name a hispanic celebrity - Javier Bardem / Selma Hayek
4. Name an Asian celebrity - Nok / Gong Li

[Avarie537]

1. Name a black celebrity Dave Chapelle
2. Name a white celebrity Jessica Simpson
3. Name a hispanic celebrity George Lopez
4. Name an Asian celebrity Connie Chung

[twickster]

Oprah Winfrey

George Bush

Mario Lopez

Lucy Liu

[tdn]

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1. Bill Cosby
2. Woody Harrelson
3. Luiz Guzman
4. Margaret Cho

Huh. That's funny.

[Drunky Smurf]

1. Will Smith
2. John Candy
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Jackie Chan

John Candy? I find it odd that he was first to pop in my head.

[Elendil's Heir]

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1. Tiger Woods
2. Mel Gibson
3. Rosie Perez
4. Michelle Park

[lavenderviolet]

1. Samuel L. Jackson
2. Tim Allen (strange since I don't particularly like him and haven't watched reruns of his show anytime recently, but he really was the first one to come to mind)
3. George Lopez
4. Margaret Cho

[Cluricaun]

1. Rudy Ray Moore
2. Lindsay Lohan
3. Cheech Marin
4. Sammo Hung

[Beware of Doug]

1. Ossie Davis
2. Paris Hilton
3. Ricky Martin
4. Lucy Liu

[Hampshire]

1. Wesley Snipes
2. Tom Cruise
3. Rosie Perez
4. Jackie Chan

[dalej42]

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1. Barack Obama
2. Madonna
3. Jenifer Lopez
4. Margaret Cho

I hate to say the second Asian was William Hung.

[Beadalin]

OK! We're past the first page. Give us some tasty, tasty details.

[Sophistry and Illusion]

1. Will Smith
2. Lindsay Lohan
3. Benicio del Toro
4. Jackie Chan

[drm]

1. Name a black celebrity

-Denzel Washington

2. Name a white celebrity

-Mila Kunis

3. Name a hispanic celebrity

-America Ferrera

4. Name an Asian celebrity

-Fann Wong

[gigi]

1. Name a black celebrity - Eddie Murphy
2. Name a white celebrity - Angelina Jolie
3. Name a hispanic celebrity - George Lopez
4. Name an Asian celebrity - Lucy Liu

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity


1. Sydney Poitier
2. Bill Clinton
3. Rosie Perez
4. Jackie Chan

[Gary "Wombat" Robson]

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrityI'm just going with the first names that come to mind, without reading other people's answers first...

1. Barak Obama
2. Robin Williams
3. Cheech Marin
4. Jackie Chan

[sandra_nz]

C'mon, what's the hypothesis?!

[Gus Gusterson]

Bill Cosby
Renee Zellweger
George Lopez
Johnny Depp (That's the first thing that popped into my mind - probably because of the Asian guy on 21 Jump Street. If I'm supposed to name the first actual Asian celebrity I can think of, I'll get back to you.)

[Bricker]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1. Halle Berry
2. Ellen Page
3. Elizabeth Peña
4. Lucy Liu

[NinjaChick]

1. Kofi Anan
2. Michael Faraday
3. Hugo Chavez
4. Yuen Wo Ping.

(Just the first names that popped into my head. I apologize sincerely for my pathetic geekiness.)

[justrob]

1. Denzel Washington
2. Pete Townsend
3. Edward James Olmos
4. Jet Li

[Sophistry and Illusion]

1. Kofi Anan
2. Michael Faraday
3. Hugo Chavez
4. Yuen Wo Ping.

(Just the first names that popped into my head. I apologize sincerely for my pathetic geekiness.)
Michael Faraday? That's nerdy even by Dope standards.

[HongKongFooey]

1. Denzel Washington
2. Madonna
3. John Leguizamo
4. Jackie Chan

[ToeJam]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1. Dave Chapelle
2. Jennifer Aniston (No idea why she popped into my head, but alright, i'll go with it).
3. George Lopez
4. Kal Penn.

*Now to read this thread and see what I've stumbled into*

[Qwertyasdfg]

Wesley Snipes
George Clooney
George Lopez
Lucy Liu

[Wallflower]

Oprah Winfrey
Jennifer Love Hewitt
J Lo
Jet Li

[sinjin]

1. Name a black celebrity Oprah
2. Name a white celebrity Britney
3. Name a hispanic celebrity Jimmy Smits
4. Name an Asian celebrity George Takei

[Elendil's Heir]

The Controvert, The Controvert, The Controvert, I summon thee!

[blinkingblinking]

1 Michael Jackson
2 Britney Spears
3 Jennifer Lopez
4 Tiger Woods

[Sternvogel]

1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Bill Gates
3. Carlos Mencia
4. Tenzin Gyatso (The Dalai Lama)

Now to read the other responses, and (if available) the OP's analysis...

[gonzomax]

1. Tiger Woods
2. Brad Pitt
3. George Lopez
4. Tiger Woods

[Trepa Mayfield]

1. Eddie Murphy
2. George W. Bush
3. George Lopez (stupid Nick at Nite on all hours of the ... night)
4. Drawing a blank here...so No Answer

[Abby_Emma_Sasha]

4. Tenzin Gyatso (The Dalai Lama)



Who was neither tenzin nor gyat, so...

[Antinor01]

Who was neither tenzin nor gyat, so...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzin_Gyatso

http://www.dalailama.com/page.105.htm

Wikipedia and the Dalai Lama's official website would disagree with you.

[irishgirl]

Black: Nelson Mandela
White: Woody Allen
Hispanic: Salma Hayek
Asian: Takeshi Kitano

[The Controvert]

Sorry about the delay. It took longer than I thought to tally the results. I am spoiler-boxing the reveal, in case folks still wish to participate.

The experiment was a test of correlation between race and gender in celebrities. My hypothesis was that male black celebrities are overrepresented. When multiple answers are given, I take the first. Sorry Shibb0leth, because you gave a male and a female for all four, I am not counting your entry. I took the first 50 votes and here are the results.

Here's the numeric data:

Raw tally:
42 black male, 84%
8 black female, 16%
34 white male, 68%
16 white female, 32%
30 hispanic male, 60%
20 hispanic female, 40%
23 asian male, 46%
27 asian female, 54%

Tally of unique answers:
18 black male, 78% (Will Smith most popular, with 8)
5 black female, 22% (Oprah most popular, with 4)
24 white male, 69% (Tom Cruise most popular, with 4)
11 white female, 31% (Paris Hilton most popular, with 5)
15 hispanic male, 68% (George Lopez most popular, with 10)
7 hispanic female, 32% (Jennifer Lopez most popular, with 12)
12 asian male, 55% (Jackie Chan most popular, with 10)
10 asian female, 45% (Maragaret Cho and Lucy Liu tie with 8 each)

The data appears to support the hypothesis.

[susan]

1. Name a black celebrity: Dave Chappell
2. Name a white celebrity: Jon Stewart
3. Name a hispanic celebrity: Carlos Mencia
4. Name an Asian celebrity: Margaret Cho

[bannerrefugee]

But men lead in all ethnicities. Why would people think of men first?

[Antinor01]

In every catagory males lead.

Except Asian. And the difference between black male and female is quite a big larger than the other categories.

eta - quoted before the edit.

[The Controvert]

But men lead in all ethnicities. Why would people think of men first?That's not entirely true. Asian males were less popular than asian females. Maybe society doesn't much care for Asian males for aesthetic or other reasons? In porn, you are much more likely to see a black guy than an Asian guy.

And why do you suppose black females are so under-represented?

on edit: I think we can forego the spoiler boxes now that we're safely on the second page. Feel free to discuss in the clear. Oh, and thanks to everyone who participated!

[bannerrefugee]

Except Asian. And the difference between black male and female is quite a big larger than the other categories.

eta - quoted before the edit.

Right I see that now. But I don't think black celebrities are much ahead of white ones.

Maybe a stat's test to see if it's a significant difference

Nice idea to think about-what is your reasoning?

[Yorikke]

1. Bill Cosby
2. Britney Spears
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Lucy Liu

Joe

[meenie7]

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1. Erykah Badu
2. Kirsten Dunst
3. Salma Hayek
4. Zhang Ziyi

[Abby_Emma_Sasha]

I based my answers on celebrities I like or admire, if we're explaining our choices. Not that I don't have girl crushes, but the men came to mind first.

[NinjaChick]

Michael Faraday? That's nerdy even by Dope standards.
In my defense, he's in my head because I'm currently attempting to write a paper for class on the Maxwell-Faraday theorem, and we all know that Faraday is infinitely cooler than Maxwell (that nerd).

[nashiitashii]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
Eddie Murphy
2. Name a white celebrity
Steve Martin
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
Salma Hayek
4. Name an Asian celebrity
Margaret Cho

[Kilvert's Pagan]

I'll post without having read any other replies:

1. Name a black celebrity Bill Cosby
2. Name a white celebrity Bob Hope :rolleyes: (sorry - it's the first thing that popped into my head...)
3. Name a hispanic celebrity Salma Hayek
4. Name an Asian celebrity George Pataki

So I guess we can infer that I'm old, if nothing else...

[LiveOnAPlane]

1. Bill Cosby
2. Richard Petty
3. Freddie Prinze
4. Bruce Lee


<<Edited to add: Oops. I did not read all of the responses and did not realize that the poll was over. Apologies!>>

[Freudian Slit]

4. Name an Asian celebrity George Pataki

So I guess we can infer that I'm old, if nothing else...
Ah, do you mean George Takei?

[Ximenean]

I don't see how this sordid little poll demonstrates any of the points that the OP wishes to make.

[The Controvert]

Sorry to have wasted your time, then.

[LifeOnWry]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

Not reading any previous responses:

1. Denzel Washington
2. Tom Cruise
3. George Lopez
4. Jet Li

[bannerrefugee]

In the US Asian’s represent the smallest population of these 4 groups. In at least 2 obvious ways this may confound your results. Besides that they are culturally and historically different from the other 3.

Again what was your reasoning for this hypothesis?
The experiment was a test of correlation between race and gender in celebrities. My hypothesis was that male black celebrities are overrepresented

Over represented in what way?

What correlation? How about some tests?

[alice_in_wonderland]

1. Denzel Washington
2. Tom Hanks
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Jet Li

[a bee]

But men lead in all ethnicities. Why would people think of men first?This supports the conventional wisdom of Hollywood that male stars are bigger, and female stars should be paid less because they cannot carry a picture alone like a man can.

[Apollyon]

1. Halle Berry
2. Drew Barrymore
3. Jessica Alba
4. Lucy Liu

[John Carter of Mars]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1)James Brown
2)Hank Williams
3)Gloria Estefan
4)Jet Li

[Lama Pacos]

1. Halle Berry
2. Lyle Lovett
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Lucy Liu

I seriously have no idea why I thought of Lyle Lovett. :dubious:

[Sleeps With Butterflies]

1. Laurence Fishburne
2. David Beckham
3. Alex Rodriguez
4. Margaret Cho

[Eyebrows 0f Doom]

1. Denzel Washington
2. Anthony Hopkins
3. Antonio Banderas
4. Jet Li

[JpnDude]

1. Denzel Washington
2. Jodie Foster
3. Jimmy Smits
4. Maggie Cheung

[hocow]

1. Will Smith
2. Tom Hanks
3. George Lopez
4. Jackie Chan

[descamisado]

1. Will Smith
2. Brad Pitt
3. George Lopez
4. Jet Li.

[John DiFool]

1. Samuel L. Jackson (always fun to watch)
2. Nicholas Cage (first one, as you said, appearing in my mind unbidden-bad brain bad brain!)
3. Lorena Ochoa (the best female golfer in the world has to be considered a celebrity, right? That and she is cute as hell)
4. Lucy Liu (mainly because that is the name of my Mom's Shih Tzu).

[pravnik]

I should have said RuPaul.

[SkeptiJess]

Without looking at anyone else's answers:

1. Name a black celebrity -- Oprah Winfrey
2. Name a white celebrity -- Paul Newman
3. Name a hispanic celebrity -- Antonio Banderas
4. Name an Asian celebrity -- Lucy Liu

[Liberal]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity
1. James Earl Jones
2. Christopher Walken
3. Ricky Martin
4. Chow Yun Fat

[Jodi]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1. Sidney Poitier
2. Tom Cruise
3. Salma Hayek
4. Jet Li

[OatmealB]

1. Denzel Washington
2. Tom Cruise
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Lucy Liu

[KSO]

1. Denzel Washington
2. Jennifer Aniston
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Michelle Wie

[Taber]

Samuel L Jackson
Keanu Reeves
Carlos Mencia
Jet Li

[elfkin477]

1. Usher
2. Paul Walker
3. Freddy Rodríguez
4. Jon Cho


Was your theory that we'd name ones we find attractive?

[The Controvert]

No, the theory was that people would name fewer black women than black men. At least, compared to other races.

[Kilvert's Pagan]

Ah, do you mean George Takei? :smack: ummm, that would be 'yes'...

[Lobsang]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1. Will Smith

2. John Travolta (Probably because he was brought up in a conversation I had today)

3. John Leguizamo (sp??)

4. Jackie Chan.

[bubble pop electric]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity

1. Halle Berry
2. Gweneth Platrow
3. Eva Longoria
4. Lucy Liu

[Švejk]

No, the theory was that people would name fewer black women than black men. At least, compared to other races.

That's not really much of a theory, i'm missing lots of things that I thing I'd need to know. First of all, as some other poster asked, what do you mean by 'overrepresented'? I take it that the celebrities named represent the population of all celebrities of a certain race and gender. What we haven't heard is how big these populations are. If, for instance, there is only one female black celeb for every 100 male black celebs, than the women are overrepresented. How can we tell that this is not the case.

One final thing that I'd like to hear from you is the causal mechanism which informs your hypothesis, in other words: why would it be the case that black women are named less than proportionally often?

[BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]

Help me test out a hypothesis. Just answer the following questions with the first thing that pops into your mind. I will reveal the experiment and the results if we get enough responses to go past the first page. Thanks!

1. Name a black celebrity
2. Name a white celebrity
3. Name a hispanic celebrity
4. Name an Asian celebrity
1 Will Smith
2 Jeff Bridges
3 JLo
4 Lucy Liu

[The Them]

1) Richard Pryor
2) Charlize Theron
3) George Lopez
4)Vanessa Mae

[fervour]

1) Oprah
2) Brad Pitt
3) Jennifer Lopez
4) Sandra Oh

[The Controvert]

If, for instance, there is only one female black celeb for every 100 male black celebs, than the women are overrepresented. How can we tell that this is not the case.Wow, you must really think little of black women if 1% equals "overrepresented" in your mind.

My hypothesis was that black women are under-represented, and the numbers seem to bear that out. Have you looked at the numbers?

[MadTheSwine]

1. Name a black celebrity-Tiger Woods
2. Name a white celebrity-Tiger Woods
3. Name a hispanic celebrity-Juan Valdez
4. Name an Asian celebrity-Tiger Woods

[Peanuthead]

Now what about the 50 who responded to the poll? I'll bet at least 45 are white. Do you think that may have an influence on the results. Maybe 50 of each, white, black, hispanic, and asian would show a marked difference. It would be interesting to compare the groups. (but probably imposible to conduct such a survey here. But you could try)

[NicePete]

1. Name a black celebrity

Bill Cosby

2. Name a white celebrity

Steve Carrell

3. Name a hispanic celebrity

Salma Hayek

4. Name an Asian celebrity

Sandra Oh

[CairoCarol]

1. Bill Cosby
2. Martha Stewart
3. J Lo
4. Jet Li

[brujaja]

Oprah Winfrey
Paris Hilton
Carlos Mencia
George Takei

[brujaja]

I think what Švejk meant is that if among the population there is 1 black female celebrity for each 100 black male celebrities, then statistically, they should be mentioned 1% of the time; in your informal poll, they received higher than 1% of the mentions, and therefore would be statistically over-represented. She pulled the number out of the air as an example.

I also think that the kind of people whom people remember has to do with a lot more than their actual numbers within a population. There are many, many choices for female white celebrities, more than enough for each of us and a few thousand others to have all said somebody different; yet several of us said "Paris Hilton". So, while I think that black female celebrities almost certainly ARE under-represented in society, gauging this by asking people to name someone who has made an impression on them (Good OR bad! Gaaaaaak!) is not the best way to get an accurate reflection.

Also you have to look at how often a given subgroup gets in the news; which is a reflection of additional cultural bias, and has a substantial impact on who people will immediately think of. God knows there are a lot more eminent black women than you will ever see in the news media.

[Švejk]

Wow, you must really think little of black women if 1% equals "overrepresented" in your mind.

My hypothesis was that black women are under-represented, and the numbers seem to bear that out. Have you looked at the numbers?

:rolleyes:

Wow, you must really understand very little of the concept of statistical representation if you misread my posts like that.

What I wrote earlier and the hypothetical numbers I pulled out of my ass (you'll notice that the sentence you quoted starts with an if-clause) as an example say nothing whatsoever about what I think about black women. It says nothing about what I think of anyone, really. The point I was trying to make, as Brujaja pointed out, is that any statement about how well a sample represents a population needs to be based on the distribution in the population.

In this little analysis here, your population is black celebrities. You have offered no numbers regarding the distribution of gender over this population, you simply assume that they're distributed equally (50 % black women, 50 % black men). It is conceivable that this is not the case, that's all I'm trying to say, and if, indeed, the distribution is different, and that is reflected in your numbers, than there's no over- or under representation.

ETA

She pulled the number out of the air as an example.

technically, i'm a he ;)

[The Controvert]

How about this: my hypothesis is that there are more black male celebrities than black female celebrities.

(on edit) And the proportion is more unbalanced than for any other race.

[Abby_Emma_Sasha]

I'd like to test that theory further

[Abby_Emma_Sasha]

I'm trying to think how we can test Contrapuntal's theory without naming every god damned female black celebrity we know, but I cain't.

So, should we?
Halle Berry
Oprah Winfrey
Alfre Woodard
CCH Pounder
Gabrielle Union
Beyonce Knowles
Star Jones
Rosario Dawson
Robin Roberts
Regina King
Tichina Arnold
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Khandi Alexander
Marsha Thompson

that's off the top pf my head. Add more, please.

[Koxinga]

1. Name a black celebrity Denzel Washington
2. Name a white celebrity Edward Norton
3. Name a hispanic celebrity Cheech Marin
4. Name an Asian celebrity Chow Yun-fat

[Koxinga]

I find it interesting that so many responders apologize for their white celebrity choice. (Including me: I have no idea why Edward Norton popped into my mind.) I have an idea why that might be--do you?

[FaerieBeth]

1. Will Smith
2. Robert Downey, Jr.
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Chow Yun-Fat

[BetsQ]

1. Chirs Rock
2. Jerry Seinfeld
3. George Lopez
4. Margaret Cho

[brujaja]

I find it interesting that so many responders apologize for their white celebrity choice. (Including me: I have no idea why Edward Norton popped into my mind.) I have an idea why that might be--do you?
I suspect it's because the first white celebrity who springs to mind may very well be somebody who is famous because or in spite of being obnoxious -- like my response of Paris Hilton. Black celebrities can't afford to be too obnoxious -- it's hard enough to overcome cultural bias as it is.

[Koxinga]

I suspect it's because the first white celebrity who springs to mind may very well be somebody who is famous because or in spite of being obnoxious -- like my response of Paris Hilton. Black celebrities can't afford to be too obnoxious -- it's hard enough to overcome cultural bias as it is.

Lucky I didn't put down my second choice of Flavor Flav.

But otherwise, yeah, that's kind of what I thought too.

[Crotalus]

1. Tiger Woods
2. Tom Hanks
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Margaret Cho

[Justin_Bailey]

My hypothesis was that black women are under-represented, and the numbers seem to bear that out. Have you looked at the numbers?

Have you? Name a celebrity, any celebrity, is a pretty lousy way to correlate male versus female ratios among a certain race. Especially when said race contains the biggest movie star in the world (Will Smith) and the frontrunner for the US Presidency (Barack Obama). And both of whom are male.

The most popular female black celebrity (Oprah) finished with half as many votes as the most popular black male. But considering the field she ran against, that's probably a pretty good showing.

Your hypothesis is broken when you failed to consider that among black male and female celebrities, there a quite a few more MAJOR black male celebrities than MAJOR female ones.

[iamthewalrus(:3=]

1. Eddie Murphy
2. Britney Spears
3. Shakira
4. Mako

[phil417]

I'm probably wrong, but I came up with one answer for all four questions: Tiger Woods.

[Sternvogel]

I'm trying to think how we can test Contrapuntal's theory without naming every god damned female black celebrity we know, but I cain't.

So, should we?
Halle Berry
Oprah Winfrey
Alfre Woodard
CCH Pounder
Gabrielle Union
Beyonce Knowles
Star Jones
Rosario Dawson
Robin Roberts
Regina King
Tichina Arnold
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Khandi Alexander
Marsha Thompson

that's off the top pf my head. Add more, please.

Okay, here are the first additional ten I thought of:

Harriet Tubman
Althea Gibson
Zina Garrison
Tamika Catchings
Lisa Leslie
Winnie Mandela
Marion Jones
Shirley Chisholm
Barbara Jordan
Billie Holiday

[Antinor01]

Of the 24 black female celebrities listed by Abby and Sternvogel I've only even heard of 9. And 3 of those I couldn't tell you what they were famous for.

[MsWhatsit]

I'm going to go ahead and answer without reading the rest of the thread. It's 4 pages so the time for answering the poll may be over...

1. Samuel L. Jackson
2. Johnny Carson
3. Horatio Sanz (I think)
4. Lucy Liu

[MadTheSwine]

Especially when said race contains the biggest movie star in the world (Will Smith) .

He is?

[Justin_Bailey]

He is?

Would you like to suggest an alternative?

[Northern Piper]

1. Eddie Murphy.
2. Brent Butt.
3. Desi Arnez.
4. John Cho.

[MadTheSwine]

Would you like to suggest an alternative?

Sure I would, but it's a matter of opinion isn't it?
I thought maybe you had some box office figures or something.(which I am rather sure he isn't the biggest draw worldwide when it comes to leading men)
Hell,John Travolta is a bigger star than Will Smith,IMO.
Will Smith wouldn't crack my top twenty( I was gonna say ten,but that seemed unlikely also.)