Rap and dangerous behaviour: two experiments

Read the instructions before you start!

Sensation seeking is probably very important for the relationship between liking rap music and different kinds of dangerous behaviour. See our article about this: rap music might not be harmful at all. Instead ‘sensation seeking’ may somehow link harmful behaviour and a liking for rap. To find out more about this you can do two experiments:

Both involve interviewing people and filling out questionnaires, plus processing this information to find out if there is a relationship.

Experiment 1. Sensation seeking and liking rap

The purpose of this experiment is to investigate if sensation seekers like rap music more than other people.

Instructions

1. In preparation, first read these instructions and print out the sensation seeking questionnaire (click link). Make sure you have at least 30 copies.
2. Go to your local record store and interview people as they come out. You may or may not go inside first and see whether they buy rap CD’s or rap video’s, OR other music, such as pop or classical, since you need both.
3. Estimate the age of the person you want to interview: they should be older than 13 and younger than 25. Go up to them and tell them you do an experiment, for which you want to ask them a few questions. It will take no more than 5 minutes.
   If they want to know exactly why, tell them you’ll explain this after the interview. Also tell them they don’t have to give their name or address.
   All you need to know is their age. (If 13 or younger, or older than 24, there is no point in taking the interview.)
   Write the age at the upper right hand corner of the form.
4. Ask them if they like rap:
   Much or very much: write on the top of the form: Yes
   Not so much, a little, maybe: write on the top of the form: Neutral
   Not or not at all: write on the top of the form: No.
5. You can stop when you have interviewed 24 people. Make sure that in the end there are about as many rap-lovers (yeses) as people who prefer other types of music (no’s).
6. Take your 24 or more interviews to an online computer and go back to the sensation seeking questionnaire.
   Enter each interview into the online form.Click on ‘determine’.
   Read the percentage which appears and write the outcome at the bottom of each form: Very Low, Low, Average, High or Very High.
7. Put the forms on three piles: Yes, Neutral, No.
8. Divide each pile again in three piles:
   High and Very High together as: High,
   Average,
   Very Low and Low together as: Low.
9. Now you have a maximum of 9 piles, since some of them may be zero.
   Count each pile and write these numbers in this table:
   

   
   

   		liking rap
   		yes	neutral	no
   sensation seeking	high
   	average
   	low

   
   They may, for example, be like this:
   
   

   		liking rap
   		yes	neutral	no
   sensation seeking	high	5	4	0
   	average	2	4	2
   	low	1	0	6

   
   

10. Now you want to know what your results mean: do sensation seekers like rap better than other kinds of music? To find this out, we have to know if our results are a coincidence or not. There is a test for this, which you can find here.
11. First you have to choose for 3 rows and 3 columns, then click ‘generate table’ and copy in the numbers you have found.
12. Click on ‘Calculate Chi square’ and hoppa: there is the result!
13. The main question: is this result statistically significant? This means: is the result meaningful, or is it just a coincidence? It says so at the bottom of the page.
    For this you have to look at the so called ‘p-value’. This means: the probability that your results could be a coincidence.
    In the example we just gave, the p-value is less than or equal to 0,01.
    This means there is a chance of one in a hundred or less, that this result is coincidental. In this example it would mean that yes, indeed, there probably is a relationship between sensation seeking and a preference for rap music.
    If the result is, for example: p is less than or equal to 1, it means that there is no relationship. Any effect that you believe to see is mere coincidence.
14. Report to us! We would appreciate it if you'd copy the result of your test and send it to Copernicus Journal for Young Scientists.
    Please add the average age of the people you interviewed. You calculate this by adding up all ages and dividing them by the total number.
    If enough of these experiments are sent in, we can determine with more certainty whether such a relationship exists. This way you can make a real contribution to science!

Experiment 2. Sensation seeking and dangerous drinking

The purpose of this experiment is to investigate if sensation seekers are more into heavy drinking than others.

Instructions

1. In preparation, first read these instructions and print out the sensation seeking questionnaire (click link).
   and the first page of the alcohol screen form. Make sure you have at least 30 copies of each.
2. Find people who are willing to take part in your experiment who are older than 13 and younger than 25.
   Tell them you do an experiment, for which you want to ask them a few questions, which will take no more than 10 minutes.
   If they want to know exactly why, tell them you’ll explain this after the interview.
   Also tell them they don’t have to give their name or address.
   All you need to know is their age. (If 13 or younger, or older than 24, there is no point in taking the interviews.)
   Write the age at the upper right hand corner of the form.
3. Fill out at least 24 sensation seeking questionnaires.
4. Fill out the alcohol screen form immediately after that with the same people. You can skip the ‘Supplementary questions’.
5. Take the sensation seeking questionnaire to an online computer and go to the sensation seeking questionnaire. Enter each interview into the online form, click on ‘determine’.
   Read the percentage which appears and write the outcome at the bottom of each form: Very Low, Low, Average, High or Very High.
6. Score the Alcohol screen form in accordance with the instructions on page 2.
   Important: pay attention to the fact that the first answer may score as a zero!
   When no answer is given, the score is also zero.
   Don’t forget that questions 9 and 10 are scored as 0, 2 and 4.
7. Add the scores to ‘TOTAL’ and divide the forms into three piles:
   0-7: write on them: No danger,
   8-15: write on them: Some danger,
   16- or more: write on them: Big danger.
8. Divide each pile again into three piles, according to the sensation seeking outcomes:
   High and Very High together as: High,
   Average,
   Very Low and Low together as: Low.
9. Now you have a maximum of 9 piles, since some of them may be zero. Count each pile and write these numbers in this table:
   
   
   

   		drinking danger
   		big	some	none
   sensation seeking	high
   	average
   	low

   
   They may, for example, be like this:
   
   

   		drinking danger
   		big	some	none
   sensation seeking	high	4	4	0
   	average	0	0	6
   	low	0	2	10

   
   
10. Now you want to know what your results mean: do sensation seekers drink dangerously much?
    To find this out, we have to know if our results are a coincidence or not.
    There is a test for this, which you can find here.
11. First you have to choose for 3 rows and 3 columns, then click ‘generate table’ and copy in the numbers you have found.
12. Click on ‘Calculate Chi square’ and hoppa: there is the result!
13. The main question: is this result statistically significant? This means: is the result meaningful, or is it just a coincidence? It says so at the bottom of the page.
    For this you have to look at the so called ‘p-value’. This means: the probability that your results could be a coincidence.
    In the example we just gave, the p-value is less than or equal to 0,01.
    This means there is a chance of one in a hundred or less, that this result is coincidental. In this example it would mean that yes, indeed, there probably is a relationship between sensation seeking and a preference for rap music.
    If the result is, for example: p is less than or equal to 1, it means that there is no relationship. Any effect that you believe to see is mere coincidence.
    
14. Report to us! We would appreciate it if you'd copy the result of your test and send it to Copernicus Journal for Young Scientists.
    Please add the average age of the people you interviewed. You calculate this by adding up all ages and dividing them by the total number.
    If enough of these experiments are sent in, we can determine with more certainty whether such a relationship exists. This way you can make a real contribution to science!

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