Study Finds Discrimination Against Muslims

Researchers sent out fictional job applications in a study of bias among employers in France. Results indicate that a potential French employer viewed applicants with Christian names much more favorably than applicants with Muslim names.

The researchers, led by David Laitin of Stanford University in California, created and mailed out 275 pairs of résumés to French employers advertising for jobs. Each of the paired résumés was identical in terms of job qualifications and experience except for the names of the applicants.

One of the applicants had a Christian given name, "Marie Diouf", while another had a Muslim given name, "Khadija Diouf".

To emphasise the religious difference in the applicants, Maire Diouf said she worked for Catholic Relief and was a member of Christian scouts, and Khadija Diouf said she had worked for Islamic Relief and was a member of Muslim scouts.

As a scientific control, the researchers compiled a third fictional résumé in the name of "Aurelie Menard", who could be identified as a rooted French person with no assumed religion – unlike "Diouf" which in France is easily identified as a Senagalese name. Every employer received a résumé of Aurelie Menard with a résumé of either Marie Diouf or Khadija Diouf – employers may have detected a test if they received applications from both Marie and Khadija Diouf, researchers said.

Marie-Anne Valfort from the Sorbonne in Paris said Khadija Diouf received a response rate of 8 per cent while Marie Diouf's response rate was 21 per cent – a highly significant difference. "It amounts to massive discrimination. The agenda is to try to find out what is driving it," Dr Valfort said.

In my estimation, nothing about the study nor the results is surprising. The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.