First off, we want to apologize for all of you early adopters sticking with us through rogue notification explosions and other app issues last week! Notifications and a few other backend issues have already been fixed and our front end developer is making updates to fix the results screen crash that a handful of us experienced and make the sign-up link higher in the Android version of the app. If you turned off notifications during the unfortunate onslaught, you can turn them back on OR just remember that each quarter closes, results come out, and a new quarter opens each Saturday at 9am Pacific Time through the end of the year!

Okay next up… Shout out to our Q1 top scorers! Since there was a tie for 2nd place this week, we split the $50 2nd place prize into two $25 prizes, and sent prizes to the top 4 scorers. We will use this system going forward in the case of ties! Remember there will be a larger SET prize ($500) coming after the first 4 quarters to the highest cumulative scorer during that time. Visit the "Standings" section of the app to see Top 100 leaderboards for both the past quarter and current set.

Ok without further ado, lez dive into the data! These Synthesis posts will aim to further breakdown data for 1 or more of the previous quarter's core questions…

This week the most interesting data was around the Uhauling questions which asked 1) how many months the typical {LBQ} user in their (teens/20s/30/40s/50s) thinks is sufficient before moving in with a partner; 2) How many months you think is sufficient; 3) The number of months the typical user thinks is the ideal answer; and 4) the number of months you think is the ideal answer.

Things you should know: first, when we program each's quarter's questions we internally theorize about how we think the data might come out by age and identity; and second, we internally represent different generations and often make very different predictions. Myself, the latest of late millenial, predicted that users in their 20s would think fewer months before uhauling was sufficient and ideal than older users, who would have learned the hard way that moving in with someone you've only known for 1 month is a bad idea (like I did). In contrast, our GenZ representative thought the opposite… that older users would be more eager to move-in and further the relationship quickly simply due to being older, more experienced, and feeling more pressure and limited time to find someone to settle down with. So basically, we had conflicting predictions… (drum-roll-please) turns out she was right and I was wrong! Statistically speaking, when combining our youngest and oldest age-groups to even out the sample sizes, users in their teens and 20s did indeed think one should be with a partner for a greater number of months prior to uhauling (M=9.89; SD=6.23) than did older users in their 30s (M=7.80; SD=5.08) and 40s+ (M=7.83; SD=5.02).

This remained pretty crazy to me so then I thought maybe these diffs are actually being driven by sexual identity where more bisexual and queer users would be in the younger age-groups and more lesbians, who originated the uhaul stereotype, would be in the older age-groups. To test this, I ran a regression model that controlled for sexual identity but the differences remained. As you can see below, even though the uhaul thing is known to be a lesbian stereotype, there were only minor, non-significant differences in guesses and answers by sexual identity.

It is worth noting that the "truths" for all sexual identity and age sub-groups were all well under the 12 months suggested by the psychological literature to be the bare minimum you should be with a partner before moving in. So yeah, it appears we are guilty as charged when it comes to this stereotype. And beyond this, our guesses as to how we think other sapphics our age would answer tended to be far lower (81% of users underestimated the uhaul reality). This competition is designed to highlight these types of discrepancies between what we THINK other sapphics are doing and thinking and what other sapphics are ACTUALLY doing and thinking.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACT: humans are prone to error in their perceptions of others. Unfortunately, (mis)perceptions about relevant others often sway our own behaviors and attitudes because it's much more comfortable to do what you think everyone else is doing than go against the group…

There is value in understanding that kinda true stereotypes like the uhaul one can cause us to make really extreme, untrue assumptions about other sapphics that go way beyond helping you score better in this competition. Example, you are 25 year old and in a new relationship that feels like its getting serious really quickly. You might have this healthy internal rule that you should wait 9-10 months before moving in together. But if you assume you are in the minority when it comes to this rule (you really aren't) and also assume your gf, like most sapphics, wants to move-in together much sooner, you may feel pressure to do so in order to make her happy. In reality, she may actually have the same 9-10 month move-in rule herself but felt uncomfortable telling you due to her perception that lesbian couples move-in together really quickly when they are really serious about a future together. You end up both just rolling with the stereotype and moving in together 4-5 months too soon. Disaster and heartbreak ensue. Many such cases!

If you scored poorly this initial quarter, keep in mind that a lot of stereotypes to be tested in this competition are going to have a shred of truth to them. Like in our uhaul example though, guessing that the average sapphic totally and extremely personifies the stereotype is not going to accurate.

For those of you that happily consumed this absolute novel of a post, here are some great additional reads related to Quarter 1 stereotypes and results:

uhauling:

• https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/uhaul-lesbian-queer-women-myth

• https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/03/06/are-you-actually-a-u-haul-lesbian-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-term/

• https://weareher.com/uhaul-meaning

home improvement/fix it abilities:

• https://www.autostraddle.com/rent-a-butch-the-handy-dyke

• https://medium.com/better-marketing/what-happened-when-lowes-went-rogue-and-started-marketing-to-women-35f5cf3b6b67

• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/06/my-lack-of-diy-skills-is-an-embarrassment-to-lesbians-everywhere

bias within the LGBTQ community:

• https://medium.com/fourth-wave/toxicity-within-the-lgbtq-community-policing-the-lesbian-terminology-aec735c05f2e

• https://www.them.us/story/study-explains-lesbian-bias-against-bisexual-women

• https://kennedifh.substack.com/p/finding-where-you-fit-in-the-queer?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

• https://www.pagingdrlesbian.com/p/lesbian-bars-and-segregation

• https://jessabramson.substack.com/p/on-disability-and-not-fitting-into?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

in love with 2 or more people at same-time:

• https://medium.com/@consciousgirlfriend/why-lesbian-relationships-turn-into-disasters-and-how-to-finally-find-lasting-queer-love-f2843320089f

• https://www.autostraddle.com/unofficially-official-theres-more-than-one-way-to-have-a-lesbian-relationship-85058/

• https://www.gaycouplestherapy.com/7-types-of-polyamorous-relationships-is-one-right-for-your-lgbtq-relationship/