The Grapefruit Race: Demonstrating the Influence of Competition on Gender Differences in Intimacy

Abstract

We present an interactive demonstration of factors that mitigate gender differences. Male and female volunteers pass a grapefruit from one classmate to the next using only their chins. The speed of task completion depends on its framing; when the volunteers believe the task is an exercise, women tend to be faster than men, whereas the opposite effect emerges when the task is framed as a competition. Student observers rated the demonstration positively and indicated positive learning outcomes regarding the context-dependent nature of gender differences in comfort with same-sex intimacy. This article offers an effective demonstration of gender differences in intimate behavior and illustrates a situation in which gender differences can be malleable.