REACTIONS TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS Emma Carlson Cary Academy ABSTRACT

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1 REACTIONS TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS Emma Carlson Cary Academy ABSTRACT The purpose of this experiment was to see how boys and girls react to different YouTube videos. It was hypothesized that girls would have higher heart rate when scared than boys. The reason for this was because when observations were made, girls were scared easier and more frequently than the boys. One at a time, 5 girls and 5 boys were each showed the same YouTube video. The reason that people did not do it together was so that it didn t change each other s reaction or what was thought about it. The heart rate monitor was plugged into a computer and each person held it while watching the video. After the snake jumped out to scare whoever was watching, the heart rate was found. This was done for each person. The second and third videos were different. Each person would watch it, still by themselves, but would be asked how they felt after the video was done. Even with the ranges, the heart rates for girls and boys averaged out to be the same and people reacted to the other videos similarly. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this experiment was to see how girls and boys react to different YouTube videos. The heart rate was determined after they watched the first video. The reason this was done, was to see what the difference, if any, between year old girl s and boy s reactions to videos. Observations were made about things used in this experiment. It was round and had five buttons around a small screen. Each button controlled something different. There was pulse, down, up/clear, set, and mode. Two 6 th grade girls took their pulse while standing still and their heart rates were both 114. Someone stood still and took their heart rate was 80. The video for this experiment was shown to two boys and one girl. Everyone experimented on was either 11 or 12 years old. When they watched it they were scared throughout the video. That was probably

2 because they felt like something was going to scare them at the end. It turned out that they were right and when the snake jumped out and scared them, all three of them jumped. After the video ended, they were also breathing much deeper than before. This video made their heart rate go up. Everybody has a heart rate. A heart rate is the amount of times the heart beats in a certain amount of time. Usually it measured as the amount of heart beats in a minute. For a child, the heart rate can be different depending on how old they are. It is also different whether they do a lot of exercising or not. If someone is very active, the heart rate of that person tends to be lower. Adult's heart rate is about 75 beats per minute. A heart can pump enough blood in one day to fill up 70 bathtubs! People get scared because of the limbic system. The limbic system is structures in the brain. It controls things like emotion, memory, or being scared. Without the limbic system, no one would get scared by anything. Even though not being scared might seem like a good thing, that means there would be no emotion or memory for any being on earth. When someone is scared, their heart rate gets higher and their heart pumps even more blood to their muscles and brain. A hypothesis was made about this experiment. It was hypothesized that girl s would have a higher heart rate than boys. This was because, after observing both genders, girls got startled more easily than the boys did even when it was over something small such as seeing a spider or being tapped on the shoulder without knowing anyone else was there. It was also hypothesized that girls and boys would react about the same way about the other two videos which were not scary and no heart rate was tested. MATERIALS & METHOD Heart rate monitor year old boys and girls Adults male and female YouTube video

3 5 girls and 5 boys will watch a scary video. They are all 11 or 12 years old. The video is called "The Longest Dead Snake Ever Found". It shows a very long snake and then the snake jumps out. While watching this, the children's heart rate will be tested using a heart rate monitor. Connecting the heart rate monitor into the computer and using Logger Pro, the heart rate of each student will be found. All of the heart rates for the girls and all of the heart rates for the boys will be averaged. Then a comparison will be made between the boy's and the girl's heart rate average. For the next part of this experiment, 5 girls and 5 boys will watch a different video on YouTube. This video is called "The Chinese Haha Song". It shows a couple sets of Chinese twins singing a song that they made up. The Chorus is the kids singing "hahahahaha" repeatedly. Observations were made while each girl and boy watched the video. After it was over, each person who watched it was asked how they felt about that video and what they liked or didn't like about it. This was recorded and found the most common answers for the group of children. 5 girls and 5 boys watched the 3rd video called "Charlie the Unicorn". It was a short story about three unicorns on an adventure to "Candy Mountain". As like the last video, the children watched the video and observations were made about how they reacted. Everyone was also asked what they thought about the video (if they thought it was stupid, annoying, funny, etc.) They most common answer for everyone was found between all of the data recorded. RESULTS & DISCUSSION People Tested Heart Rate Reaction Boy 1 96 jumped back Boy 2 83 blank look on face & confused Boy flinched & jumped back

4 Boy blank look on face Boy 5 95 flinched Girl screamed & jumped Girl scared & jumped back Girl 3 97 screamed & jumped back Girl scared & jumped Girl scared & flinched Figure 1: snake video Figure 2: Heart rate of people when scared by video. The chart and graph both show 5 girls and 5 boys who watched the snake video when it jumps out at the screen. This shows each person, their heart rate, and how they reacted when watching it. Boys 2 and 4 didn't get scared at all. They sat there and just had a blank expression on their face. Other people got either just a little bit scared or very scared. Most people jumped back. A

5 couple of the girls screamed when the snake jumped out. This was very interesting. There was a huge range for the boys and not much of a range for the girls. It turned out that both the girls and boys average for their heart rate was both rounded 112. The girls had exactly and the boys had exactly This information was very surprising. People Tested Boy 1 Boy 2 Boy 3 Boy 4 Boy 5 Girl 1 Girl 2 Girl 3 Girl 4 Girl 5 Reaction Scarred & laughed in agony Culturally Shocked Laughed & was creeped out Creeped out Confused & thought it was weird Confused & Annoyed Felt excited & dance and sang along Laughed & was creeped out Scarred for life Shocked & speechless Figure 3: Chinese Haha Song table This table shows how people reacted to the Chinese Haha Song. It is a video of little kids singing a song that repeats hahaha many times. The reactions for this video were pretty much the same. Many people thought that it was very annoying. Some people were a little confused also. One person out of the ten loved the song. Girl 2 danced during the song and also sang along at some points of it. This shows that there can definitely be very different reactions by people watching the same video. People have different opinions.

6 People Tested Boy 1 Boy 2 Boy 3 Boy 4 Boy 5 Girl 1 Girl 2 Girl 3 Girl 4 Girl 5 Thoughts about the video Funny & stupid Funny & strange Confused Annoyed & stupid Sad, mean & unhealthy Funny & stupid Annoyed Danced & scared at some points Dumb & weird Funny & weird Figure 4: Charlie the Unicorn table 5 boys and 5 girls also watched this video called Charlie the Unicorn. It is about 3 unicorns on an adventure to candy mountain. Most people said that the video was very annoying and stupid. Some people were also confused. Boy 5 thought that the video was unhealthy because of the candy in it. Girl 3 was scared at some points because they were unsure of what was happening in the video. Most of the people didn t like the video and thought it was dumb.

7 Figure 1: frightened girl #1 Figure 2: frightened girl #2

8 CONCLUSION The hypothesis created was not fully correct. It stated that girls would have a higher heart rate than boys when they got scared by the snake but it turned out that the average for the two genders was the same. The averages for both of them were 112 beats per minute. This experiment probably turned out the way it did because the girl s heart rates were pretty much all around the same, but the boys had a big range. This evens it out. The heart rates for the boys were The heart rates for the girls went from 95 to 127. Something that would make this experiment easier would be to project the snake video. The reason for this would be so that the computer wouldn t get too close to the heart rate monitor. That would mess up how it read the beats per minute. It would also make everything bigger and that might be scarier for some people to watch. A further experiment that could be done might be using different variables and see if that changes what happens. Some possibilities would be having the people who are watching the videos drink soda or eat something such as potato chips or crackers. It was very interesting that the average heart rate of the girls and the boys were both 112. For the second and third videos the reactions and what people thought about the videos were pretty much the same except for maybe one or two people. REFERENCES Biesty, Stephen and Richard Platt. Stephen Biesty's Incredible Body. New York: DK Publishing Inc Print. Gabson, Justin. "How Does the Human Heart Work?" Wikispaces. January 15, Web. KidsHealth. "Being Afraid." KidsHealth. January 13, Web. Sanders, Eddie. "The Human Heart." Wikispaces. January 12, Web.

9 Simon, Seymore. The Heart: The Circulatory System. New York, NY. Morrow Junior Books Print. Wikipedia. "Heart Rate." Wikipedia. January 14, Web. Wikipedia. "Limbic System." Wikipedia. January 13, Web.