About News Holbein: U.S. school principals discriminate against Muslims and atheists, our study finds Sep 11, 2020 Steven Pfaff, Charles Crabtree, Holger L. Kern and John B. Holbein Holbein: U.S. school principals discriminate against Muslims and atheists, our study finds Rafeef Hammad, originally from Iraq, takes the citizenship oath with 35 other new U.S. citizens in Fairfax, Va., in January 2017. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)On Sept. 11, 2001, the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda coordinated four attacks against targets in the United States, killing nearly 3,000 individuals and injuring tens of thousands more. After these attacks, Americans grew more suspicious of and outwardly hostile to Muslims. Research shows that these views increased in the years that followed. Our recently published paper in the Public Administration Review shows that — even 19 years later — public officials in the United States discriminate against Muslims. How we did our research We drew our conclusions from a type of experiment that researchers call an audit or correspondence study. The experiment was designed to measure whether U.S. public school principals would respond differently to families based on their religious beliefs. To do this, we sent emails to a sample of more than 45,000 public school principals divided evenly across the country. The emails were purportedly sent by a fictional family interested in sending their child to the principal’s school, and asked principals for a meeting. We randomly assigned the family a religious affiliation or lack thereof. We did that by embedding a quote at the bottom of most emails, in the signature line, that read, “[ … ] teaches that life is precious and beautiful. We should live our lives to the fullest, to the end of our days.” We signaled the family’s religious views by including either “Christianity,” “Catholicism,” “Islam” or “Atheism” in the quote, with the quote attributed to the Rev. Billy Graham, Pope Benedict, the prophet Muhammad or Richard Dawkins, depending on the fictional family’s beliefs. We also randomly varied how strongly we emphasized the fictional family’s religious beliefs. In some cases, the email indicated that the family wanted to find a school that was compatible with their beliefs; in others, the family noted that it expected accommodation for their beliefs. For comparison purposes, some emails included no quote or reference to religion at all. Overall, principals or their staff responded to our emails about 43 percent of the time, comparable to response rates from similar studies. READ FULL ARTICLE IN THE WASHINGTON POST MONKEY CAGE John Holbein John Holbein is an assistant professor of public policy and education at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Holbein studies political participation, political inequality, democratic accountability, political representation, and education policy. Read full bio Related Content John Holbein 400 million voting records show profound racial and geographic disparities in voter turnout in the United States Research This paper documents the extent and nature of inequities in voter participation in the United States with a level of granularity and precision that previous research has not afforded. Are Americans less likely to reply to emails from Black people relative to White people? Research Although previous attempts have been made to measure everyday discrimination against African Americans, these approaches have been constrained by distinct methodological challenges. We present the results from an audit or correspondence study of a large-scale, nationally representative pool of the American public. We provide evidence that in simple day-to-day interactions, such as sending and responding to emails, the public discriminates against Black people. Batten Faculty Recognized for Excellence in Teaching, Service, Research and Engagement News This academic year, Batten School professors won a slew of internal and external recognitions for excellence in teaching, service, research and engagement. African Americans Are Less Likely to Receive Responses to Emails, Study Finds News New evidence from a team of researchers, including Batten professor John Holbein, suggests that everyday racial discrimination is far more widespread than previous studies have indicated. Stay Up To Date with the Latest Batten News and Events Subscribe
John Holbein John Holbein is an assistant professor of public policy and education at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Holbein studies political participation, political inequality, democratic accountability, political representation, and education policy. Read full bio
400 million voting records show profound racial and geographic disparities in voter turnout in the United States Research This paper documents the extent and nature of inequities in voter participation in the United States with a level of granularity and precision that previous research has not afforded.
Are Americans less likely to reply to emails from Black people relative to White people? Research Although previous attempts have been made to measure everyday discrimination against African Americans, these approaches have been constrained by distinct methodological challenges. We present the results from an audit or correspondence study of a large-scale, nationally representative pool of the American public. We provide evidence that in simple day-to-day interactions, such as sending and responding to emails, the public discriminates against Black people.
Batten Faculty Recognized for Excellence in Teaching, Service, Research and Engagement News This academic year, Batten School professors won a slew of internal and external recognitions for excellence in teaching, service, research and engagement.
African Americans Are Less Likely to Receive Responses to Emails, Study Finds News New evidence from a team of researchers, including Batten professor John Holbein, suggests that everyday racial discrimination is far more widespread than previous studies have indicated.