more proof that foucault didn't know what he was talking about when he called american sociology 'the dull science'

A few days ago, JFW reported on a survey of Domino's delivery drivers that reported that people who come to the door nude are more likely to leave large tips. In trying to understand the causal processes behind this puzzle of gratuitous nudity and gratituity, we said that a first step would be to try to figure out whether it was the case that the sort of person who would sometimes answer the door nude is a bigger tipper than the sort of person who would never do this, or if it was that when the sort of person who would sometimes answer the door nude does answer the door nude, they tip more for some reason than they do on occasions when they answer the door clothed. A loyal reader from Enid, OK writes in with a couple of ideas for experiments to try to resolve the issue:

Study 1: participants come to the lab and are placed in individual cubicles and told they can either put on pajamas or undress and stay nude. They are then given enough money to order a pizza and told that they should tip the delivery guy using their own money. We then compare the mean tip level of those who chose to wear pajamas to those who decided to go nude.

Study 2: participants come to the lab on day 1 and are told to change into pajamas. They are then given enough money to order a pizza and told that they should tip the delivery guy with their own money. On day 2, they are told to simply undress and again, order a pizza tipping the driver with their own money. To rule out order effects, half of the participants in study 2 are nude on day 1 and pajama-d on day 2 [methodological note: this strategy is called counterbalancing]. We then compare the mean tipping levels across the day when they were nude to the day when they were pajama-d.

These are fabulous research ideas! Now all we need are a grant. Since Domino's philanthropic efforts are pretty much focused on religion, we'll have to go somewhere else. If you or any foundation you know would be willing to fund/conduct this study, please contact us here at JFW immediately.