Abstract

Research on higher education and employment outcomes tends to ignore the social capital benefits that accrue to graduates via alumni membership. To what extent does shared university affiliation promote job-finding assistance and positive individual and career perceptions from fellow alumni? Further, does this support vary by job seekers’ race? Using a survey experiment, we provided 522 White college-educated employed men with a vignette showing them an InMail message on LinkedIn from someone seeking job-finding assistance. We included two primary treatment conditions: (1) whether vignettes matched the same university from which the respondent graduated and (2) the race (White or Black) of the InMail message sender. Respondents reported being more likely to respond to and assist individuals who had the same university affiliation, regardless of the message sender’s race. They also perceived same-affiliation job seekers as more likely to get a job at their organization and felt greater responsibility for their employment success. While some positive perceptions of affiliation extended equally to White and Black job seekers, White job seekers garnered significant advantages in perceptions of personal dedication and future employment success. This first-ever test of affiliation-based social capital provides new insights into the link between educational stratification and economic inequality.

Keywords: social capital, employment, job search, educational credentials, alumni

Abstract

Although numerous studies document different forms of discrimination in the U.S. public education system, very few provide plausibly causal estimates. Thus, it is unclear to what extent public school principals discriminate against racial and ethnic minorities. Moreover, no studies test for heterogeneity in racial/ethnic discrimination by individual-level resource needs and school-level resource strain – potentially important moderators in the education context. Using a correspondence audit, we examine bias against Black, Hispanic, and Chinese American families in interactions with 52,792 public K-12 principals in 33 states. Our research provides causal evidence that Hispanic and Chinese American families face significant discrimination in initial interactions with principals, regardless of individual-level resource needs. Black families, however, only face discrimination when they have high resource needs. Additionally, principals in schools with greater resource strain discriminate more against Chinese American families. This research uncovers complexities of racial/ethnic discrimination in the K-12 context because we examine multiple racial/ethnic groups and test for heterogeneity across individual- and school-level variables. These findings highlight the need for researchers conducting future correspondence audits to expand the scope of their research to provide a more comprehensive analysis of racial/ethnic discrimination in the U.S.

Abstract

Racial bias experiments commonly use names to signal race as treatments. However, recent methodological examinations find that individuals often perceive class and race together. This calls into question the treatment validity of thousands of experiments. Still, little evidence exists on what leads to name perceptions and how scholars might increase treatment validity in future studies. I suggest that racialized and classed demographic naming patterns may influence individuals’ perceptions of names. I conducted two survey experiments and used demographic birth record data to examine social class perceptions. In total, 7,695 respondents provided 82,321 perceptions on 636 combinations of first and last names. Although demographic naming patterns have small effects on respondents’ social class perceptions of White-signaled names, classed patterns have a large effect on respondents’ perceptions of Black-signaled names. These findings suggest that treatment validity is a severe problem for bias experiments. To help mitigate this problem, I provide seven recommendations that researchers should implement in all experiments that use names to signal various characteristics. Scholars who follow these recommendations will neutralize or minimize threats to treatment validity, engage in a more empirical and open scientific process, and, in some cases, open up new avenues of research on bias.