Aaron T. Copeland

Brian D. McGregor

David J. Greiner

Laura W. Woodward

Paul Sommers

English

Research Papers in Economics

“Shotgun!”
by
Aaron T. Copeland, David J. Greiner, Brian D. McGregor,
Laura W. Woodward and Paul M. Sommers
June, 2002
MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ECONOMICS DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 02-25
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE
MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT 05753
http://www.middlebury.edu/~econ“Shotgun!”
by
Aaron T. Copeland
David J. Greiner
Brian D. McGregor
Laura W. Woodward
Paul M. Sommers
Department of Economics
Middlebury College
Middlebury, Vermont 057532
“Shotgun!”
Aaron T. Copeland
David J. Greiner
Brian D. McGregor
Laura W. Woodward
Paul M. Sommers
“She’s got a ticket to ride,
but she don’t care.”
¾ John Lennon and
     Paul McCartney, 1965
Among young adults, “Shotgun” is the ritual of riding in the front (and hence most
coveted) passenger seat of an automobile.
1 Who gets to ride shotgun depends on a list of
simple rules.  (For a complete list of official shotgun rules, see www.theshotgunrules.com.)
But, do the rules by which people play “Shotgun” depend on the gender of the passengers
or even where in the United States these riders are from?  To answer this question, we
surveyed 131 Middlebury College men and women who were familiar with this game, 52
(79) of whom live in states east (west) of the Mississippi River.  All respondents were
asked to choose one of the following three options that best describes the rule by which
they and their friends back home play: (i) you must say the word “Shotgun” inside a
building
2 as you are getting ready to leave to ride in the automobile (henceforth, Rule 1)
3;
(ii) you must be outside to call “Shotgun” (Rule 2); or (iii) you must be outside and see
the car before calling “Shotgun”, the so-called “Line-of-Sight Rule” (Rule 3).  Students3
were also asked their class and whether or not they were graduated from a public or
private high school.
The results of one tabulation are summarized in the following contingency table:
Rule of Choice
1 2 3
                    Home
West 16 19 17
East 14 22 43
The chi-square technique is the one most frequently used to test the null hypothesis that
there is no association, or in this example, that the proportion of students living in eastern
(western) states who favor one rule is the same as the proportion of students living in the
same region who favor any other rule.  The overall 
2
 value in this case is 6.323, which
is significant at better than the 0.05 level (p = .042).  Examination of the cell-by-cell
contributions to the calculated 
2
 value shows that the largest contribution, 1.951, comes
from the “West” ¾ “Rule 3” cell.  The observed count is 17, but the expected count if the
null hypothesis were true is 23.82.  Far fewer students living west of the Mississippi
River than expected play by the “Line-of-Sight Rule”, a rule favored more heavily by
students living in eastern states.  When these data are disaggregated by sex of the
respondent, we discover that the regional difference is much stronger among males [men
(n = 82), p = .013; women (n = 49), p = .948].  No other associations could be found
between shotgun rules and some other student characteristic, neither by type of high
school (p = .83) nor by class (p = .11).4
CONCLUSION
Being forced to squeeze into the back seat of a car is not nearly as desirable as
sitting in the front passenger seat with its advantages of a reachable dashboard and
additional legroom.  Survey results suggest that young adults in different parts of the
country play “Shotgun” by different rules.  Easterners and, principally men, prefer calling
“Shotgun” only outside when the car is within sight.  Interested readers are invited to
investigate other “auto”correlations.5
Notes
1.  Riding “Shotgun” conjures up nineteenth century images of someone armed with a
shotgun sitting next to the driver of a covered wagon.
2.  You must say the word loud enough so that at least one other rider in your group
can hear you.
3. Aficionados insist on a well-defined time frame before one can call “Shotgun”.  In
particular, “Shotgun” may only be called when the next group activity is a ride in
the automobile, that is, only after “the deed is done” (i.e., the activity that
immediately precedes the car ride).

"Shotgun!"

http://www.middlebury.edu/services/econ/repec/mdl/ancoec/0226.pdf

"Shotgun!"

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Research Papers in Economics