Research Based Article on Racial Discrimination

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Research Based Article on Racial Discrimination

The scientific method is systematic body of procedures used the investigation of phenomena, attaining new information or making improvements of or correcting past knowledge. Scientific models of enquiry must be founded on the empirical and measurable collected evidence that has been based on scientific principles of reasoning. The main steps contained in the scientific process are the formulation of a question, doing a background research on the area of study, constructing a hypothesis, undertaking a scientific experiment to test the hypothesis, analyzing the results and drawing a conclusion.

The article being analyzed is a research article by Jennifer Doleac and Luke C.D. Stein on how race plays a role in the determination of market outcomes. The first step in the scientific method of undertaking a research is the formulation of a question. The researcher states what he or she wants to learn from the research. On the racism article by Jennifer Doleac and Luke C.D. Stein, the research question is; do buyers discriminate based on race?

The second step in the scientific method is doing background research. During this stage, the researcher sources for information from books, on the internet and other sources, in an attempt to gather as much information as possible, related to the area of study. Other researchers in the past have made scientific enquiries and gathered pertinent information related to studies in their different fields. Doing background research involves going through this information to have some background knowledge on the subject. After conducting background research the authors of the article find that economic outcomes have in the past been highly correlated with race. However, there background research does not indicate any causal mechanisms that base these correlations.

The third step in the scientific method is the construction of a hypothesis. This involves making a scientific guess where the researcher attempts to predict the answer to the problem. The hypothesis made by the researchers on the racism article is that African American sellers tend to make fewer sales, as opposed to their white counterparts in the United States market mainly due to racial prejudices.

The fourth step in the scientific method involves undertaking a scientific experiment to test the hypothesis. The researchers on the racism article have undertaken a scientific experiment to validate their hypothesis. This experiment involved the posting of three advertisements in three hundred markets in the period of one year. The total advertisements amounted to 1200 advertisements. The advertisements were mainly made online and a random attachment of photographs made on the advertisements. The sales were made through bidding where the potential buyer would make a bid offer via e-mail. The products were shipped to the highest bidder, where payment was made by Pay Pal.

The nest step in the scientific method involves the analysis of the results. During this stage, the researchers record the findings of the experiment. In the racism research article, the authors record that the African American sellers had thirteen percent fewer responses and seventeen percent fewer offers in comparison to their white counterparts. The results further indicated that those who corresponded with the African American sellers exhibited minimal trust. These buyers were less likely to include their names in the e-mails; others were less likely to accept delivery by mail while fifty-six percent were cautious concerning making long-distance payments. The results generally indicated that the African Americans were at a significant disadvantage to their white counterparts.

The last step is the conclusion. During this step, the researcher reviews the results to check whether the hypothesis was justified. The research article’s results indicated that the hypothesis was correct. The African American buyers indeed tend to make fewer sales as opposed to their white counterparts in the United States market mainly due to racial prejudices.