Lost Letters: Using the Lost-letter Technique to Teach Social Research Methods

Abstract

Over 50 years ago, Stanley Milgram and colleagues published a short article detailing an unobtrusive experimental design they called the lost-letter technique. The technique involves placing stamped, unmailed letters in a community and using the relative rate of return to infer local attitudes toward political issues and social groups. Furthermore, the technique is simple and inexpensive enough to replicate in an introductory-level social science course as a means to familiarize students with social research methodology. This activity utilizes active learning with student-centered pedagogy, and this paper details the procedure, best practices, and student feedback. Students enjoy having a personal stake in the project and find they better understand social research through this active learning project. Instructors are encouraged to consider adopting the technique in their courses.

Gaining Confidence, Experience, and Knowledge as Researchers among Undergraduate Sociology Students

“…Other scholars have found student confidence in doing research increases after doing research in sex and gender courses (Bach and Weinzimmer 2011; Bartholomay 2018). Scholars report improvement in students’ research abilities in Social Psychology of Aging (Zablotsky 2001), Marriage and Family (Healey-Etten and Sharp 2010), and Introductory Sociology (Burdette and McLoughlin 2010; Peyrefitte and Lazar 2018; Reid 2018).…”

Testing for Discrimination: Teaching Audit Studies in Quantitative Methods Courses

“…Audit studies have flourished in sociology, psychology, economics, and political science in the past 15 years. Audits are a subcategory of field experiments , the general term for an approach that combines a real-world setting with an experimental stimulus and data collection (for the only Teaching Sociology articles I know of on field experiments, see Burwell 1987 and Reid 2018 on the “lost letters” technique). After many forms of overt discrimination were banned in the 1960s, employers, landlords, and individuals became more reluctant to admit any racial bias or discrimination.…”