Is the sex of a person making a friend request on Facebook to someone they do not know associated with whether or not the request is accepted? To answer this question, student researchers at Hope College made up fake Facebook profiles, one representing a Hope College female student and one representing a Hope College male student. The profiles were made to look as similar as possible except for a couple of pictures of the fake students, their names, and of course whether they were male or female. From a group of 219 students at the college, 118 were randomly assigned to receive the friend request from the female €œstudent€ and 101 were randomly assigned to receive the friend request from the male €œstudent.€ The results of the acceptance of these requests are shown in the following table.

a. Was this an observational study or an experiment? How are you deciding?
b. What are the observational units?
c. What are the variables recorded? For each variable, identify the type of the variable (categorical or quantitative) and the role of the variable (explanatory or response).
d. Did the study involve random sampling? If yes, what is the advantage of a randomly selected sample? If no, what is the disadvantage?
e. Did the study involve random assignment to get the friend request from either the female or the male? If yes, what is the advantage? If no, what is the disadvantage?
f. An appropriate analysis of the data shows there is strong evidence that people receiving the request from the female are more likely to accept. Is it appropriate to conclude that the sex of the requestor is affecting the acceptance rates? Why or why not? Explain your reasoning.

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Facebook profile Female Total Male Yes 79 61 Accepted friend No 18 57 83 140 request? Total 118 101 219