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Revision as of 23:17, 6 November 2008
The Woman Acceptance Factor (WAF) – sometimes referred to as Woman Approval Factor or Wife Acceptance Factor – is the playful estimation of the acceptance or refusal of a new acquisition or project by the significant other. It relies on the cliché that men are driven by a certain geekiness when it comes to acquisitions like home theater or PCs, disregarding the stereotypically female aspects of aesthetics, design and practical/financial considerations, let alone ease-of-use. The first known WAF reference was in a 1989 article about wives rebellion against "oversized loudspeakers."
The Woman Acceptance Factor is inversely proportional to the possible amount of conflict resulting from the different points of view. The lower the WAF, the more convincing needs to be done, or the more conflicts arises from the acquisition or project.
Potential for conflict lies in:
- Questionable practical use / necessity
- High initial acquisition cost and/or high running cost
- Amount of time husband spends with the new purchase
- Aesthetic deficiencies like large, ugly chassis or trunks of surface mounted cables
- Necessary construction work like chiselling slits into walls
- Constant noise from fans, hard drives etc.
- Space considerations
- Total number of remote controls under female control
- Challenges imposed by beta-software, user-interface etc.
A low WAF item could be a video projector with a makeshift ceiling mount and a huge trunk of black cables, which needs to warm up for 3 minutes before it can be used to watch the TV news if all the input/output selectors on the receiver and the stereo deck are set right with 3 different remote controls.
High WAF items are generally aesthetically designed, easy to use devices like the iPod, or computer furniture which hides cables and connectors.
Recently, the Woman Acceptance Factor has also been applied to non-technical stereotypical male activities like attending sporting events or "hanging out with the guys."
References
- WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor), The Boston Globe June 28, 2004
- Top 10 products with high 'wife-acceptance factor' News.com October 28, 2006