Last name and acquisition timing. Refer to the Journal of Consumer Research (Aug. 2011) study of the last name effect in acquisition timing, Exercise 9.14

(p. 476). Recall that the mean response times (in minutes) to acquire basketball tickets were compared for two groups of MBA students:

those students with last names beginning with one of the first 9 letters of the alphabet and those with last names beginning with one of the last 9 letters of the alphabet.

Summary statistics for the two groups are repeated in the table. An analysis of the variances of the two groups is displayed in the accompanying MINITAB printout.

a. Locate a 95% confidence interval for the ratio of the true variances in response times for the two groups on the printout and interpret the result.

b. Based on the interval, can you conclude that one group has a larger variance in response time than the other?
Explain.

c. How does your answer to part b affect the inference you made regarding the difference in mean response times in Exercise 9.14?

Transcribed Image Text:

First 9 Letters: Last 9 Letters: A-I R-Z Sample size 25 25 Mean response time (minutes) 25.08 19.38 Standard deviation (minutes) 10.41 7.12