In 2015 the Journal of Applied Psychology published a field experiment by Katherine Milkman, Modupe Akinola and Dolly Chugh. They sent 6,548 emails from invented prospective doctoral students to professors at 259 American universities. Each email asked a stranger for a meeting “to briefly talk about your work and any possible opportunities for me to get involved in your research.” Sixty-seven percent of the emails received a response.
The real purpose of the study was to measure bias, and professors did not answer everyone equally. In business schools, 87 percent of white men received a response, compared with 62 percent of women and minority students.