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Reducing ethnic discrimination in rental applications: the development of a training intervention
Housing Studies
Abstract
While field experiments are valuable in their ability to objectively analyse patterns of discrimination, research that focuses on reducing discrimination is systematically lacking. The present study addresses this gap. Building on both cognitive and behavioural processes that steer discriminatory decision-making and insights from diversity literature, we develop and test the effectiveness of a training intervention which is tailored to the specific context of the housing market, with 113 students in real estate. We develop our training around three theoretical mechanisms of discrimination that are measured through a specified vignette experiment in pre- and post-tests. Our results show a reduction in statistical and customer taste-based discrimination after the training, but no change in agent taste-based discrimination. The driver for this reduction in discrimination is being more selective on majority candidates rather than increasing the chances of ethnic minority candidates. Additionally, we found that training has no effect on taste and that most of these effects remain present on the long term.
... Many women, especially the poor and marginalised, do not have equal access to housing because of the lack of land, property and housing rights, hence the need for research and policy emergence on the phenomenon. Extant studies have attributed gender discrimination in the rental housing market to social, economic and patriarchal cultural practices (Ghekiere, D'hondt, Derous, Schelfhout, & Verhaeghe, 2023;Lott, 2012;Cook, Bruin, & Crull, 2000). Yet, it would be difficult to eradicate poverty from Africa if women's land rights were not implemented. ...
This study examines the complex issues surrounding gender discrimination in the rental housing market in Lagos, Nigeria. It investigates the reasons for gender preferences alongside the immediate reactions and responses of female tenants who experienced rental housing discrimination, which frequently manifests as higher rent demands, unfavourable lease terms and outright denial of housing, among others. The mixed methods study used instruments that were tested for reliability and validity, with copies of the questionnaire being served to real-estate practitioners and interviews conducted with female tenants to develop evidence-based policy recommendations for addressing gender discrimination and promoting equitable access to rental housing in Lagos State. Thus, the study makes an important contribution to the discourse of gender discrimination. Given the cultural roots of such discrimination, the study suggests the need for an awareness campaign targeting diverse actors within the housing market. The study noted that the Nigerian government has enacted laws to protect women's rights in housing, implementation remains a challenge. Therefore, promoting gender equality in housing requires the concerted efforts of government and the collective resistance of civil-society organisations and the private sector.
Introduction
The aim of this research is to look into how signals carried by names can contribute to the explanation of why rental discrimination is measured. Ethnic discrimination on the rental housing market is a widespread phenomenon that is increasingly captured in an objective way by means of correspondence studies. This methodology assumes that the trigger for the measured discriminatory behavior is the signal of ethnic origin in names. Nonetheless, previous research found that names also contain other signals such as religiosity, social class and educational level.
Method
The current study relates data of 3.753 correspondence tests on the Flemish rental housing market in Belgium to survey data about the perception of the used names in the correspondence tests in terms of ethnic origin, gender, religiosity, social class and educational level. By doing so, we can set a step in the direction of why discrimination is measured.
Results and discussion
We find that realtors discriminate based on the perception of a name as religious, which we describe as religious taste-based discrimination. Besides, we also find indications for statistical discrimination. For landlords, the perception of a name as non-European increases discrimination, indicating ethnic taste-based discrimination.
Ethnic discrimination on the housing market has been subject of research for years. While a field experimental approach is widespread, alternative attempts to objectively measure mechanisms of discrimination on the housing market are scarce. In line with labor market research, we stress that to reduce rental discrimination against ethnic minorities, we need understanding its underlying mechanisms. This is the first paper that introduces a vignette experiment to do so. We distinguish between four mechanisms put forward in the literature but hardly ever empirically tested: agent taste-based discrimination, owner taste-based discrimination, neighborhood taste-based discrimination and statistical discrimination, in a multifactorial vignette experiment among 576 pre graduate real estate student. In addition, our experimental design allows us to examine whether unequal treatment is heterogeneous by property owner and neighborhood characteristics.
Why does someone thrive in intercultural situations; while others seem to struggle? In 2014, Leung and colleagues summarized the literature on intercultural competence and intercultural effectiveness into a theoretical framework. This integrative framework hypothesizes that the interrelations between intercultural traits, intercultural attitudes and worldviews, and intercultural capabilities predict the effectiveness with which individuals respond to intercultural situations. An empirically verified framework can contribute to understanding intercultural competence and effectiveness in health care workers, thus contributing to more equity in health care. The present study sets out to test this integrative framework in a specific health care context. Future health care practitioners (N = 842) in Flanders (Belgium) were questioned on all multidimensional components of the framework. Structural equation modeling showed that our data were adequate to even a good fit with the theoretical framework, while providing at least partial evidence for all hypothesized relations. Results further showed that intercultural capabilities remain the major gateway toward more effective intercultural behavior. Especially the motivation and cognition dimensions of cultural intelligence seem to be key factors, making these dimensions an excellent target for training, practical interventions, and identifying best practices, ultimately supporting greater intercultural effectiveness and more equity in health care.
Introducing a new method, we measure real estate agents’ intentions to act upon a discriminatory request on the housing market. Our results show that realtors are willing to discriminate on request and that the method of mystery mails allows scholars to measure and contextualize these discriminatory intentions in a detailed and elaborate way.
There is still little research about the association of anti-immigrant attitudes with ethnic discrimination. In this study we investigate whether there is more rental discrimination against ethnic minorities in Belgian municipalities with more negative attitudes and higher perceived threats toward immigration and refugees. For this purpose, we merged unique data from correspondence tests with the aggregated attitudes in 44 municipalities. There was profound discrimination against candidates with Moroccan names by both private landlords and realtors. In contrast to theoretical expectations there was not more ethnic discrimination in municipalities with more negative attitudes or higher perceived threats. However, it appears that rental candidates – irrespective of their ethnic origin – are less likely to be invited in municipalities with higher threats and more negative attitudes.
Purpose: Kolb’s experiential learning cycle is perhaps the most scholarly influential and cited model regarding experiential learning theory. However, a key issue in interpreting Kolb’s model concerns a lack of clarity regarding what constitutes a concrete experience, exactly. A systematic literature review of empirical studies seeking to facilitate experiential learning. Research questions: 1. what constitutes a concrete experience? 2. what is the nature of treatment of a concrete experience in experiential learning?
Findings: The analysis revealed five themes 1. learners are involved, active, participants;
2. knowledge is situated in place and time; 3. learners are exposed to novel experiences, which involves risk; 4. learning demands inquiry to specific real world problems; 5. and critical reflection acts as a mediator of meaningful learning. A revision to Kolb’s model is proposed (Figure 1).
Sinds 2015 voert Stad Gent een doorgedreven beleid tegen discriminatie op de woningmarkt. Deze ‘Gentse aanpak’ bestond uit een combinatie van training, dialoog en academische, sensibiliserende en juridische praktijktesten onder wetenschappelijke begeleiding. De stad focuste hierbij voornamelijk op de groep van vastgoedmakelaars. De hamvraag is hierbij: werkt deze Gentse aanpak wel? In welke mate daalde de discriminatie structureel bij makelaars in Gent? En wat met de groep van particuliere verhuurders? In hoeverre verschoof de discriminatie enkel naar een latere fase van het verhuurproces of werd ze enkel subtieler in plaats van echt te dalen? Deze studie probeerde een antwoord te geven op bovenstaande vragen. Het antwoord is gemengd. Er zijn weldegelijk zaken in de goede richting veranderd op de Gentse woningmarkt. Toch zijn er ook indicaties dat er nog steeds wordt gediscrimineerd.
Resume-screening by human raters is vulnerable to hiring discrimination but recruiter training as a way to overcome biased resume-screening is under-researched. The present study addresses this gap. Building on key cognitive processes that steer discriminatory decision-making in resume-screening and insights from diversity literature, we investigated the effectiveness of two cognitive training interventions (i.e., a culture-general assimilator and a structured free recall intervention) for reducing hiring discrimination against ethnic minority job applicants in the resume-screening stage. A pre-test, repeated post-test experimental study showed initial hiring discrimination (i.e., less positive evaluations of minority job applicants than majority ones), which was reduced shortly after both training interventions. Hiring discrimination, however, resurfaced 3 months later for both interventions. The culture-general assimilator also positively affected participants’ perceived ability to suppress stereotypes, both short-term and long-term. Findings are considered in the light of a comparison of these training interventions, their programme features, and their compatibility with the resume-screening task. Implications for prejudice reduction initiatives, their potential differential effects, and further research are also discussed.
Ethnic discrimination is very persistent on the rental market. Real estate agents hold a unique position, as the intermediate link between owners with specific (discriminatory) desires on the one hand and rental candidates on the other. By means of the relatively new technique of mystery calls among 400 real estate agents in the Brussels Capital Region in Belgium, this study sheds light on the strategies realtors follow and which justifications they make to comply or oppose to discriminatory requests of owners. It appears that an important share of realtors is willing to act discriminatory upon request. They develop a few strategies to bring discriminatory requests into practice, ranging from straightforward exclusion and discouraging minorities to facilitating discrimination by composing lists of rental candidates. Whereas quantitative analyses showed some variance in discriminatory intentions according to the ethnic neighbourhood composition, which is in line with the neighbour taste-based discrimination theory, qualitative analyses especially revealed justifications which confirm the owner taste-based discrimination reasoning. Moreover, realtors underscored the “economic rationality” of owner taste-based discrimination. In addition, realtors also referred to ideas of statistical discrimination by making distinctions between “good” and “bad” ethnic minority groups.
Factorial surveys are widely used in the social sciences to measure respondents’ attitudes, beliefs, or behavioral intentions. In such surveys, respondents evaluate short descriptions of hypothetical situations, persons, or objects that vary across several dimensions. An important prerequisite of the method’s validity is that respondents are able to deal with the highly complex task created by the need to consider several variable dimensions within one coherent judgment. We analyze the effects of the order in which dimensions are presented in running text vignettes. An experimental setup with four order treatments was randomly allocated to 787 respondents (based on a random sample of register data), yielding 3,119 vignette evaluations. The analyses compare respondent groups across age, education, and response speed. Overall, there is no strong evidence for order effects. However, we find a slight tendency for fast responders to be more prone to recency effects.
Correspondence testing to research discrimination in the marketplace has become common and the use of internet applications has allowed researchers to send greater numbers of applications. While questions of research ethics always arise when planning a correspondence test, the issue receives relatively little attention in published correspondence tests. This paper addresses the question of ethics in correspondence testing in the age of ready internet access. It focusses on the ethical issues that arise in correspondence testing, looking at potential problems (regarding voluntary participation, informed consent, deception, entrapment of employers, employers’ rights) and possible solutions, and technical challenges. European country examples show that the ethical questions raised in correspondence testing have to be renegotiated depending on the national context. The paper argues that correspondence testing, if planned carefully and executed responsibly, can meet most of the ethical requirements of Social Science ethics guidelines.
We present a broad review of all studies having tested for discrimination against minority ethnic groups in the rental housing market by the correspondence testing method. We perform a meta-analysis of correspondence tests from 25 separate studies conducted in OECD countries between 2006 and 2017, containing more than 300 estimates of effects and representing a total of more than 110,000 e-mails sent to private landlords or real-estate agents. In addition to presenting overall results of recent studies, we focus on subgroups of specific correspondence tests in order to highlight the differences in ethnicity, gender, type of landlords, procedure, continent, and type of information provided in applications. We provide evidence that both gender and ethnic discrimination occur in the rental housing market in OECD countries, such that applicants with minority-sounding names and male names are discriminated against (especially Arab/Muslim applicants). Thus, ethnic majority women are the most favored in this market in OECD countries while minority men are the most disadvantaged. Moreover, we show the existence of interactions between ethnic and gender discrimination: gender discrimination is greater for minority-sounding names than for majority-sounding names. Finally, it seems that real-estate agents discriminate significantly less against minority applicants than private landlords do. This would seem to be at least in part because private landlords display significant statistical discrimination while real-estate agents do not. These results are robust to the estimation methods used (random effects, fixed-effects, and unrestricted weighted least squares methods).
Discrimination is long seen as a meaningful factor for ethnic inequalities on rental housing markets. Yet empirically, the extent of discrimination is still debatable. For the first time, this article provides a quantitative meta-analysis of field experiments (in person audits and correspondence tests) that were run over the last four decades in the United States, Canada and Europe (N = 71). Special focus is given to a possible inflation of effect sizes by publication bias; to time trends; and to evidence for statistical discrimination. Taken together, nearly all experiments document the occurrence of ethnic discrimination. Effect sizes are inflated by publication bias, but there is still substantial evidence left once the bias is removed. The analysis reveals a consistent decline in the extent of discrimination over time, from moderate levels of discrimination in the 1970s and 1980s, up to only small but still statistically significant levels in the 1990s and 2000s. A significant part of the discriminatory behaviour can be attributed to missing information about the social status of applicants, which supports theories on statistical discrimination. It is discussed how future research could move our knowledge on the underlying mechanisms forward.
It is very important to report some effect size measures that will show if the observed differences among the groups are also of practical significance along with statistical significance while reporting statistical analysis results. Performances of four commonly used effect size measures (Eta-Squared, Partial Eta Squared, Omega Squared and Epsilon Squared) were compared for one and two-way ANOVA models under 3000 different conditions. Results of simulation runs showed that the Epsilon and Omega-Squared estimates were quite unbiased when compared to Eta and Partial Eta-Squared which are directly reported by commonly used statistical packages while reporting ANOVA results. Thus, it could be concluded that reporting Epsilon or Omega-Squared is more appropriate to evaluate the practical significance of observed differences along with P-values.
This meta-analysis of 260 independent samples assessed the effects of diversity training on 4 training outcomes over time and across characteristics of training context, design, and participants. Models from the training literature and psychological theory on diversity were used to generate theory-driven predictions. The results revealed an overall effect size (Hedges g) of .38 with the largest effect being for reactions to training and cognitive learning; smaller effects were found for behavioral and attitudinal/affective learning. Whereas the effects of diversity training on reactions and attitudinal/affective learning decayed over time, training effects on cognitive learning remained stable and even increased in some cases. While many of the diversity training programs fell short in demonstrating effectiveness on some training characteristics, our analysis does reveal that successful diversity training occurs. The positive effects of diversity training were greater when training was complemented by other diversity initiatives, targeted to both awareness and skills development, and conducted over a significant period of time. The proportion of women in a training group was associated with more favorable reactions to diversity training. Implications for policy and directions for future research on diversity training are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of experiential learning model on student teachers’
achievement in chemistry as well as their scientific process skills. The pre and posttest research pattern
with treatment and control groups was used throughout the study. While the treatment group received
education through experiential learning model, the control group was taught within a traditional teachercentered
approach. The sampling consisted of 40 student teachers studying Chemistry Education at
Hacettepe University. Data collections tools were the chemistry achievement test and the scientific
process skill test. As the study concluded, experiential learning is an effective approach on academic
achievement and scientific process skills. The applicability of experiential learning to high school
chemistry curriculum out of teaching curricula rather than those at the universities can be investigated.
The impact of experiential learning on other variables can be identified.
Inherent in applied developmental sciences is the threat to validity and generalizability due to missing data as a result of participant dropout. The current paper provides an overview of how attrition should be reported, which tests can examine the potential of bias due to attrition (e.g., t-tests, logistic regression, Little’s MCAR test, sensitivity analysis), and how it is best corrected through modern missing data analyses. To amend this discussion of best practices in managing and reporting attrition, an assessment of how developmental sciences currently handle attrition was conducted. Longitudinal studies (n ¼ 541) published from 2009–2012 in major developmental journals were reviewed for attrition reporting practices and how authors handled missing data based on recommendations in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2010). Results suggest attrition reporting is not following APA recommendations, quality of reporting did not improve since the APA publication, and a low proportion of authors provided sufficient information to
convey that data properly met the MAR assumption. An example based on simulated data demonstrates bias that may result from various missing data mechanisms in longitudinal data, the utility of auxiliary variables for the MAR assumption, and the need for viewing missingness along a continuum from MAR to MNAR.
Diversity education in academic and business settings has common goals of helping students or employees to learn diversity knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Unfortunately, researchers are missing opportunities to capitalize on the unique characteristics of each setting to answer research questions of general interest. We review the research from 1970 to the present reporting evaluations of diversity education initiatives targeting adult learners. We identify a series of unanswered research questions and suggest ways that these questions can be addressed in academic or business contexts.
This article introduces the Causal Attitude Network (CAN) model, which conceptualizes attitudes as networks consisting of evaluative reactions and interactions between these reactions. Relevant evaluative reactions include beliefs, feelings, and behaviors toward the attitude object. Interactions between these reactions arise through direct causal influences (e.g., the belief that snakes are dangerous causes fear of snakes) and mechanisms that support evaluative consistency between related contents of evaluative reactions (e.g., people tend to align their belief that snakes are useful with their belief that snakes help maintain ecological balance). In the CAN model, the structure of attitude networks conforms to a small-world structure: evaluative reactions that are similar to each other form tight clusters, which are connected by a sparser set of "shortcuts" between them. We argue that the CAN model provides a realistic formalized measurement model of attitudes and therefore fills a crucial gap in the attitude literature. Furthermore, the CAN model provides testable predictions for the structure of attitudes and how they develop, remain stable, and change over time. Attitude strength is conceptualized in terms of the connectivity of attitude networks and we show that this provides a parsimonious account of the differences between strong and weak attitudes. We discuss the CAN model in relation to possible extensions, implication for the assessment of attitudes, and possibilities for further study. (PsycINFO Database Record
Experiential learning theory (ELT) has been widely used in management learning research and practice for over thirty-five years. Building on the foundational works of Kurt Lewin, John Dewey and others, experiential learning theory offers a dynamic theory based on a learning cycle driven by the resolution of the dual dialectics of action/reflection and experience/abstraction. These two dimensions define a holistic learning space wherein learning transactions take place between individuals and the environment. The learning space is multi-level and can describe learning and development in commensurate ways at the level of the individual, the group, and the organization. This approach is illustrated by reviewing current research on individual learning styles and managerial problem solving/decision making, the process of team learning and organizational learning. We describe how ELT can serve as a useful framework to design and implement management education programs in higher education and management training and development.
Employing a vignette experiment, we test the empirical importance of key attitudes underlying the models of taste-based and statistical discrimination in explaining ethnic hiring discrimination. We find that employer concern that co-workers and customers prefer collaborating with natives drives discrimination.
The purpose of this meta‐analysis was to use theory and research on diversity, attitudes, and training to examine potential differential effects on affective‐based, cognitive‐based, and skill‐based outcomes, to examine potential moderators of those effects with a focus on affective‐based outcomes, and finally, to provide quantitative estimates of these posited relationships. Results from 65 studies (N = 8465) revealed sizable effects on affective‐based, cognitive‐based, and skill‐based outcomes as well as interesting boundary conditions for these effects on affective‐based outcomes. This study provides practical value to human resources managers and trainers wishing to implement diversity training within organizations as well as interesting theoretical advances for researchers. Practitioners have quantitative evidence that diversity training changes affective‐based, cognitive‐based, and skill‐based trainee outcomes. This study also supports and addresses future research needs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Dramatic forms of discrimination, such as lynching, property destruction, and hate crimes, are widely understood to be consequences of prejudicial hostility. This article focuses on what has heretofore been only an infrequent countertheme in scientific work on discrimination-that favoritism toward ingroups can be responsible for much discrimination. We extend this counterthesis to the strong conclusion that ingroup favoritism is plausibly more significant as a basis for discrimination in contemporary American society than is outgroup-directed hostility. This conclusion has implications for theory, research methods, and practical remedies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
This paper examines racial discrimination across several neighborhood and housing unit characteristics including racial composition, rent, and distance from the urban core. We find that African Americans face higher rates of discrimination than whites in a wide range of racially mixed neighborhoods, in higher rent areas, closer to central cities, and in low vacancy areas. These results are robust to various parameterizations of the local smoothing empirical specification. The location of discrimination supports the current/future customer prejudice and perceived preference hypotheses as a cause of discrimination in housing markets but not the landlord taste-based hypothesis.
This survey gives a brief overview of the literature on the difference-indifference
(DiD) estimation strategy and discusses major issues using
a treatment effects perspective. In this sense, this survey gives a somewhat
different view on DiD than the standard textbook discussion of
the DiD model, but it will not be as complete as the latter. It contains
some extensions of the literature, for example, a discussion of, and suggestions
for nonlinear DiD estimators as well as DiD estimators based
on propensity-score type matching methods.
This article reviews the observational, laboratory, and field experimental literatures on interventions for reducing prejudice. Our review places special emphasis on assessing the methodological rigor of existing research, calling attention to problems of design and measurement that threaten both internal and external validity. Of the hundreds of studies we examine, a small fraction speak convincingly to the questions of whether, why, and under what conditions a given type of intervention works. We conclude that the causal effects of many widespread prejudice-reduction interventions, such as workplace diversity training and media campaigns, remain unknown. Although some intergroup contact and cooperation interventions appear promising, a much more rigorous and broad-ranging empirical assessment of prejudice-reduction strategies is needed to determine what works.
This study aims to investigate to which extent the ethnic and socio-economic composition of the neighbourhood is related to levels of discrimination in the rental housing market and how this is linked to theories of ethnic discrimination. Hereby, we divide the context into the neighbourhood of the dwelling and the real estate agency, using data from 2385 correspondence tests conducted among realtors in the city of Antwerp in Belgium. Regarding the neighbourhood of the dwelling, we find a tipping point at one third ethnic minorities whereafter ethnic discrimination decreases, which is in line with the perceived preference hypothesis and customer-based prejudice. A lower socio-economic composition relates to lower general invitation rates, which we describe as an elaboration of Putnam’s hunkering down hypothesis. Regarding the neighbourhood of the real estate agency, a higher percentage of ethnic minorities leads to lower general invitation rates, also referring to the hunkering down hypothesis. The socio-economic neighbourhood composition of the agency, however, has no impact.
Ethnic discrimination proves to be a persistent problem on the private rental market. However, little attention has been paid to contexts that might impact discrimination on the housing market, partly due to the fact that these factors have not been integrated into a comprehensive study. We aim to investigate whether the types of discriminatory behavior vary and/or are moderated by three types of contextual factors: (1) dwelling indicators, such as type of dwelling and price category; (2) neighborhood indicators, such as socio-economic and ethnic composition of the neighborhood; and – to the best of our knowledge the first time in research - (3) real estate agency indicators, such as the gender structure and size of the agency. For this purpose, we made use of data from 2,014 matched correspondence tests on ethnic discrimination among 493 real estate agencies in Brussels Capital Region in Belgium. Our findings suggest that candidates of North African origin face discrimination when searching for an apartment to rent. We also found that discrimination is lower in poorer and more ethnically mixed neighborhoods and higher in smaller and male-dominated real estate offices. We call for a bigger focus on both spatial and organizational context in research on discrimination.
The past decade has seen rapid growth in research that evaluates methods for reducing prejudice. This essay reviews 418 experiments reported in 309 manuscripts from 2007 to 2019 to assess which approaches work best and why. Our quantitative assessment uses meta-analysis to estimate average effects. Our qualitative assessment calls attention to landmark studies that are noteworthy for sustained interventions, imaginative measurement, and transparency. However, 76% of all studies evaluate light touch interventions, the long-term impact of which remains unclear. The modal intervention uses mentalizing as a salve for prejudice. Although these studies report optimistic conclusions, we identify troubling indications of publication bias that may exaggerate effects. Furthermore, landmark studies often find limited effects, which suggests the need for further theoretical innovation or synergies with other kinds of psychological or structural interventions. We conclude that much research effort is theoretically and empirically ill-suited to provide actionable, evidence-based recommendations for reducing prejudice.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 72 is January 4, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
We examine trends in racial and ethnic discrimination in U.S. housing and mortgage lending markets through a quantitative review of studies. We code and analyze as a time series results from 16 field experiments of housing discrimination and 19 observational studies of mortgage lending discrimination. Consistent with prior research, we find evidence of a decline in housing discrimination from the late 1970s to the present. Our results show that this trend holds in both the national audits sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and in non-HUD studies. The decline in discrimination is strongest for discrimination that involves direct denial of housing availability, for which discrimination has declined to low levels. The downward trend in discrimination is weaker for measures reflecting the number of units recommended and inspected, and significant discrimination remains for these outcomes. In the mortgage market, we find that racial gaps in loan denial have declined only slightly, and racial gaps in mortgage cost have not declined at all, suggesting persistent racial discrimination. We discuss the implications of these trends for housing inequality, racial segregation, and racial disparities in household wealth.
Researchers have used audit studies to provide causal evidence of racial discrimination for nearly 60 years. Although audits are an excellent methodological tool to investigate the “what,” “where,” and “when” aspects of racial-ethnic discrimination, audits are less appropriate, by themselves, to investigate the “how” and “why” aspects of racial-ethnic discrimination. In this article, I review why audit studies are necessary to study racial-ethnic discrimination, the evidence from audit studies, and their limitations. I then argue that scholars should adopt a multimethod approach to audit studies to move from documenting the existence of racial-ethnic discrimination to examining how and why racial-ethnic discrimination occurs. Adoption of this multimethod approach will result in a deeper understanding of racial-ethnic discrimination with the potential to shape both opinions and policy surrounding discrimination.
Recent research has found widespread discrimination by hosts against guests of certain races in online marketplaces. In this paper, we explore ways to reduce such discrimination using online reputation systems. We conducted four randomized field experiments among 1,801 hosts on Airbnb by creating fictitious guest accounts and sending accommodation requests to them. We find that requests from guests with African American–sounding names are 19.2 percentage points less likely to be accepted than those with white-sounding names. However, a positive review posted on a guest’s page significantly reduces discrimination: when guest accounts receive a positive review, the acceptance rates of guest accounts with white- and African American–sounding names are statistically indistinguishable. We further show that a nonpositive review and a blank review without any content can also help attenuate discrimination, but self-claimed information on tidiness and friendliness cannot reduce discrimination, which indicates the importance of encouraging credible peer-generated reviews. Our results offer direct and clear guidance for sharing-economy platforms to reduce discrimination.
This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.
This article focusses on the scope and causes of ethnic discrimination against applicants with different ethnic backgrounds in the German housing market. Whereas ethnic discrimination is a well-documented phenomenon in the commercial housing market, little is known about the shared housing market.
I conducted a field experiment in the German shared housing market for students, sending out fictitious enquiries with names signalling a Turkish, a Syrian or an US background to advertisers of shared livings in Berlin, Germany.
The results show that ethnic discrimination against Turks and Syrians is widespread, whereas the US applicant is not discriminated against substantially. Discrimination against the Syrian applicant is furthermore mediated by the language used in the enquiries. The results show that patterns of discrimination differ between permanent and temporary contracts.
The private rental sector (PRS) is growing in many Western countries after a period of decline. In Belgium, a renewed policy interest in the PRS emerges and the sector is believed to play an important role in addressing housing needs of low-income households. Steering these households to the PRS is however not without problems. The supply side of the market is not necessarily willing to accommodate vulnerable renters. Landlords and real estate brokers install mechanisms to exclude financially vulnerable households throughout the entire rental procedure. These in turn develop (counter)strategies to get round the obstacles and to increase their chances. In this article, we apply an interactional perspective to study the interplay of strategies developed by both sides of the market. The article is based on 58 in-depth interviews with landlords and brokers, testimonies of low-income tenants from 15 focus groups plus 5 in-depth interviews about the influence of different discrimination grounds on their private rental experiences.
An audit study is a specific type of field experiment primarily used to test for discriminatory behavior when survey and interview questions induce social desirability bas. In this chapter, I first review the language and definitions related to audit studies and encourage adoption of a common language. I then discuss why researchers use the audit method as well as when researchers can and should use this method. Next, I give an overview of the history of audit studies, focusing on major developments and changes in the overall body of work. Finally, I discuss the limitations of correspondence audits and provide some thoughts on future directions.
Experiential learning is an important pedagogical approach used in secondary agricultural education. Though anecdotal evidence supports the use of experiential learning, a paucity of empirical research exists supporting the effects of this approach when compared to a more conventional teaching method, such as direct instruction. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to examine the effects of an experiential learning approach to instruction on the successful intelligence of secondary agricultural education students, as measured across three domains – practical intelligence, analytical intelligence, and creative intelligence. It was concluded students who received the experiential learning treatment produced higher creativity scores that were domain specific. In addition, they scored higher in their practical use of knowledge when compared to their direct instruction counterparts. However, regardless of treatment, both direct instruction and experiential learning yielded similar analytical knowledge scores. Thus, it was recommended agricultural educators utilize a blended approach of instruction to provide balanced growth in all four modes of learning.
This article frames racism as a threshold concept and, using qualitative data from written coursework, examines student learning of that concept in a racially diverse college course. The data suggest scaffolding learning and using real-world applications correlate to student mastery of the threshold concept of racism. Findings also suggest that students of color, those who assessed their understandings of issues of race and racism on the first day of class as mixed (rather than expert or weak), those who took the course primarily due to interest, and upperclassmen moved more quickly toward advanced understandings of racism. Qualitative data illustrate that the ways in which the threshold concept was troublesome and transformative varies for students, particularly by race. This study answers the call for more research on the pedagogy of racism as related to the learning experiences of students of color, especially in diverse classrooms.
Evaluation studies of cross-cultural training programs: A review of the literature from 1988 to 2000 The field of international human resource management (IHRM) is a relative new-comer in the social sciences. Despite its nascency, this field has seen massive growth in the research generated by scholars in the past decade (Mendenhall, Kuhlmann, Stahl, & Osland, 2002). One area within the IHRM field that has experienced explosive growth over the past 20 years is that of expatriation. Numerous scholars have focused on a variety of aspects of expatriation during this time period: selection, adjustment, training, relationship to global leadership development, family relationships, reentry issues, national and gender differences (for examples, see Black, Gregersen, Mendenhall, & Stroh, 1999; Church, 1982; Cui & Awa, 1992; Furnham & Bochner, 1986; Gertsen, 1990; Kealey & Ruben, 1983; Mendenhall, Kuhlmann, & Stahl, 2001; Mendenhall & Oddou, 1985; Torbiörn, 1982; Tung, 1981, 1982). Although many scholars have ...
To measure what determines people’s attitudes, definitions, or decisions, surveys increasingly ask respondents to judge vignettes. A vignette typically describes a hypothetical situation or object as having various attributes (dimensions). In factorial surveys, the values (levels) of dimensions are experimentally varied, so that their impact on respondents’ judgments can be estimated. Drawing on the literature in cognitive psychology and survey methodology, we examine two research questions: Does the order in which dimensions are presented impact the vignette evaluations and change substantive conclusions? Under which conditions are order effects mostly likely to occur? Using data from a web survey of 300 students, we analyze several possible moderators: features of the vignette design, characteristics of respondents, and interactions between these features. Results show that strong order effects can occur, but only when the vignettes are of a minimum complexity or respondents show a low attitude certainty.
Audits conducted in Boston in 1981 uncovered extensive discrimination; black housing seekers were told about 30 percent fewer available housing units than were whites. Finds that the primary cause of this discrimination is economic: housing agents cater to the racial prejudice of current or potential white customers. -from Author
Social preference research has received considerable attention among economists in recent years. However, the empirical foundation of social preferences is largely based on laboratory experiments with self-selected students as participants. This is potentially problematic as students participating in experiments may behave systematically different than nonparticipating students or nonstudents. In this paper we empirically investigate whether laboratory experiments with student samples misrepresent the importance of social preferences. Our first study shows that students who exhibit stronger prosocial inclinations in an unrelated field donation are not more likely to participate in experiments. This suggests that self-selection of more prosocial students into experiments is not a major issue. Our second study compares the behavior of students and participants recruited from the general population in a trust experiment. In general, we find very similar behavioral patterns for the two groups, but nonstudents make significantly more generous repayments suggesting that results from student samples might be seen as a lower bound for the importance of prosocial behavior.
Analyzes and clarifies the differences between eta-squared and partial eta-squared in fixed factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) designs. The formulas are presented and discussed, and an example is presented along with the appropriate use and meaning of the 2 coefficients. Finally, a general discussion of the use of eta-squared and partial eta-squared is provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We investigate how increasing the information about applicants affects discrimination in the rental housing market. We let four fictitious applicants, two with typical Arab/Muslim names and two with typical Swedish names, use application letters containing different amounts of information to apply for apartments over the Internet in Sweden. The Arab/Muslim applicants received fewer responses from the landlords than did the Swedish applicants. All of the applicants gained by providing more information about themselves, but the amount of discrimination against the Arab/Muslim applicants remained unchanged, indicating that increasing the amount of information about the applicants will not reduce discrimination.
With a field experiment carried out on the Internet, this paper studies the presence of discrimination in the Italian rental housing market against persons whose names are distinctive of different ethnic groups and gender. Further, we investigate whether providing information on the job or personal characteristics of the applicant may reduce the extent of discrimination. We also study if sending ill-formed emails negatively affects immigrants’ chances of success in receiving a positive response. We created twelve fictitious individuals: four with Italian-sounding names, four with typical Arab/Muslim names and four with East European-sounding names. We made these individuals send emails to apply for vacant rental apartments in 41 Italian cities. The results provide a multifaceted picture. The degree of discrimination varies across ethnic groups, genders and the level of information, but seems to be present only in part of the country, and is also closely correlated with the size of the flat. Perfect mastery of the receiving-country’s language does not play an important role.
Persistent racial inequality in employment, housing, and a wide range of other social domains has renewed interest in the possible role of discrimination. And yet, unlike in the pre-civil rights era, when racial prejudice and discrimination were overt and widespread, today discrimination is less readily identifiable, posing problems for social scientific conceptualization and measurement. This article reviews the relevant literature on discrimination, with an emphasis on racial discrimination in employment, housing, credit markets, and consumer interactions. We begin by defining discrimination and discussing relevant methods of measurement. We then provide an overview of major findings from studies of discrimination in each of the four domains; and, finally, we turn to a discussion of the individual, organizational, and structural mechanisms that may underlie contemporary forms of discrimination. This discussion seeks to orient readers to some of the key debates in the study of discrimination and to provide a roadmap for those interested in building upon this long and important line of research.
