About This Project
In 2004 the state of MS amended their state constitution to ban same sex marriage with a vote of 86%.Our experiment will use the lost letter technique to see if this social bias still holds true after a decade has passed.We will look at the six coastal towns of MS by leaving stamped envelopes in public areas addressed to National Organization of Marriage and Freedom to Marry, then comparing our return rate of the letters by the general public.Ask the Scientists
Join The DiscussionWhat is the context of this research?
In 2004 the state of Mississippi amended the state constitution to affirm that marriage would only be recognized between a man and a woman. Overall 86% of the voters in Mississippi did vote to ban same sex marriages in the state.
Using a lost letter experiment, the social bias of marriage equality will be investigated. The focus of this experiment will be the six coastal towns of Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Gulfport, Biloxi and Ocean Springs. Bay St. Louis is in Hancock County which voted to ban same sex marriage with 78% of votes in 2004. Pass Christian, Long Beach, Gulfport and Biloxi fall in Harrison County, which voted to ban same sex marriage in 2004 with 76% of votes. Ocean Springs is in Jackson County which voted to ban same sex marriage in 2004 with 81%.
What is the significance of this project?
With the Federal government steadily overruling the state based judgement to ban same sex marriage and civil unions, it is important to look at Mississippi's Gulf Coast to see if their opinion still holds true. The MS Gulf Coast has a large art community and a growing LGBT community. This subject should be investigated to see if in fact the opinions of a decade ago still hold true now. By using a social experiment to test this social bias, the results could help new initiatives in the future for the local community, on both sides of the marriage equality agenda.
What are the goals of the project?
The goals of this project are to simply gauge the communities social bias to such an important political and social issue. By doing this research it will give us the first step in looking at the social bias on the MS Gulf Coast. It is said that the state of Mississippi will be the last state to legalize same sex marriage. It is our hope to find out if this holds true, at least on the MS gulf Coast for now.
We will be leaving a total of 600 letters throughout the six coastal towns on the MS Gulf Coast. These letters will be addressed to either a pro-same sex marriage organization or an anti-same sex marriage organization and be left at random where the public will be able to find them. We will then determine social bias based on the return rate for each organization.
Budget
This is an undergraduate research study at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast. We do not have funding to do our research and we find it important to do our own research studies for our advancement into graduate school. We only need assistance meeting our funding goals for the materials needed to accomplish the experiment, or the materials themselves (stamps, envelopes, writing utensils).
Meet the Team
Team Bio
Stacie, Cameron, Tabitha and Angelique all agree this is an important and relevant social topic in today's world. As a group they decided to see what the attitudes of their local areas were towards same-sex marriage. It is important to know what the social attitudes are for such an important topic and by using the lost letter technique we are able to look at this.All four of the ladies are interested in different focuses in the field of psychology but social psychology is something that everyone can get on board with. We are very excited to jump into this project.
Lab Notes
Nothing posted yet.
Additional Information
A photograph of the return rate from Milgram's original Lost Letter experiment.
Project Backers
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