[ATTW-L] racial bias in responding to email requests

[Dragga, Sam]

A new study of racial bias in responding to email requests could generate a productive classroom conversation about anti-racist and social justice practices in technical communication.

The research article was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and is available at https://www.pnas.org/content/118/52/e2110347118.

Here is a portion of the abstract:

We conducted an audit study on the general public—sending correspondence to 250,000 citizens randomly drawn from public voter registration lists. Our within-subjects experimental design tested the public’s responsiveness to electronically delivered requests to volunteer their time to help with completing a simple task—taking a survey. We randomized whether the request came from either an ostensibly Black or an ostensibly White sender. We provide evidence that in electronic interactions, on average, the public is less likely to respond to emails from people they believe to be Black (rather than White).  . . . Our results provide a window into the discrimination that Black people in the United States face in day-to-day interactions with their fellow citizens.

Sam

Sam Dragga
Professor Emeritus
Texas Tech University
sam.dragga at ttu.edu
1-806-543-6099

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