title: Responses to lost letters about a 2000 General Election amendment to abolish prohibition of interracial marriages in Alabama.
abstract: A field study using 621 "lost" letters was conducted in the city of Mobile and in small towns in mostly rural Baldwin County, Alabama. Milgram's lost letter technique was validated against the actual votes cast during the November 7, 2000 General Election. The technique was successful as an unobtrusive measure useful for predicting patterns of voting behavior. Rates of return of lost letters "in favor of and opposed to legalizing interracial marriage" agreed with the actual election returns (chi-square "goodness of fit"). Community size seemed associated with return of lost letters.
authors.affiliation: Division of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science, The University of West Florida, 11000 University Parkway, Pensacola, FL 32514-5750, USA. fbridges@uwf.edu
authors.forename: F Stephen
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Bridges
authors.forename: Kato B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Keeton
authors.forename: L Nicholle
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Clark
mesh_terms: D000407:Alabama; D003625:Data Collection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007878:Legislation as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008393:Marriage / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011057:Politics; D011639:Public Opinion; D011640:Public Policy; D011822:Race Relations / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data