How to reduce discrimination? Evidence from a field experiment in amateur soccer

A rich literature shows that ethnic discrimination is an omnipresent and highly persistentphenomenon. Little is known, however, about how to reduce discrimination. This study reportsthe results of a large-scale field experiment we ran together with the Norwegian FootballFederation. The federation sent an email to a random selection of about 500 amateur soccercoaches, pointing towards the important role that soccer can play in promoting inclusivity andreducing racism in society and calling on the coaches to be open to all interested applicants.Two weeks later, we sent fictitious applications to join an amateur club, using either a nativesounding or a foreign-sounding name, to the same coaches and to a random selection of about500 coaches who form the control group. In line with earlier research, we find that applicationsfrom people with a native-sounding name receive significantly more positive responses thanapplications from people with a foreign-sounding name. Surprisingly and unintentionally, theemail from the federation substantially increased rather than decreased this gap. Our studyunderlines the importance of running field experiments to check whether well-intendedinitiatives are effective in reducing discrimination