
Despite growing descriptive evidence of discrimination against minority religious groups and atheists in the United States, little experimental work exists studying whether individuals face differential barriers to receiving public services depending on their religious affiliation. Here we report results from a large-scale audit study of street-level bureaucrats in the American public school system. We emailed the principals of more than 45,000 public schools and asked for a meeting, randomly assigning the religious affiliation/non-affiliation of the family. To get at potential mechanisms, we also randomly assigned belief intensity.We find evidence of substantial discrimination against Muslims and atheists. These individuals are substantially less likely to receive a response, with discrimination growing when they signal that their beliefs are more intense. Protestants and Catholics face no discrimination unless they signal that their religious beliefs are intense. Our ?findings suggest that minority religious groups and atheists face important barriers to equal representation in the public arena.
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SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Political Science|American Politics, bepress|Education|Secondary Education, bepress|Education|Elementary Education, SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Political Science, SocArXiv|Education|Secondary Education, bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Political Science, SocArXiv|Education, bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Political Science|American Politics, SocArXiv|Education|Elementary Education, SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, bepress|Education, bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences, bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences
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