Godless shoes have lost their way
We have another guest post today from our blog’s favorite Norwegian, Andreas Rekdal.
Disclaimer: this post draws heavily on an experiment that (much like the Reinhart-Rogoff study) was not subjected to peer review prior to publishing. I therefore advise you to take the data with a grain of salt.
Ich Bin Atheist shoe, Redchurch Street, Hackney, London, UK (Photo credit: gruntzooki)
The other day my friend Andrew sent me a link to an informal study done by Atheist Shoes, a German pusher of sleek (and expensive) handmade footwear and accessories. The study showed that boxes packed using their ATHEIST-branded packaging tape are, on average, 10 times more likely to disappear while being handled by the USPS, and that when they do arrive they take 3 days longer than their more subtly labeled counterparts.
The idea to conduct the experiment arose when the company caught wind from American customers that “[S]ometimes the shoes. . . take longer than they should to arrive, or even go missing.” After some customers asked them not to use their trademark tape, the company decided to test whether the tape might have something to do with their shipment trouble. In order to do so, they sent 178 packages to 89 customers in the United States (one box with, and one box without the tape to each customer). The packages were identical, apart from the tape, and they were all sent from Berlin on the same day. Yet the packages with ATHEIST tape took notably longer to arrive—the ones that did arrive, that is.
Of course, we can only speculate as to why the openly godless shoes took longer to arrive than their closeted counterparts. The USPS (or customs) might have special procedures for handling items which display religious or political symbolism, or the black on white writing on the tape might somehow throw off the USPS’ sorting robots. However, since control tests in Europe did not yield similar results, there is some basis for suspecting that the delays may have more to do with the handlers than with the technology (studies have found that atheists in America are looked upon with particular dislike and distrust).
If we assume for a minute that the findings are reliable, and that the outcome is not due to technological factors (remember that these are big “ifs”), could it be that the word “atheist” has become so loaded that it distracts postal workers from the task at hand? Could it be that some postal workers were so put off by it that they deliberately sabotaged the shipment? Or could it be that some neighbors or landlords took such offense from the tape that they kept the packages from reaching their final destinations?
And if so, what does this say about attitudes toward actual atheists?
It’s hard to know what to make of this bizarre phenomenon. To eliminate technological factors, the study should be replicated with control tape that is identical in design, but uses a different word (EVANGELICAL, or FREEDOM, for instance), to try and determine whether bias toward atheists is really the cause for the hold-ups.
In the grand scheme of things, it might not be a big deal that some Atheist shoes weren’t delivered in time for Christmas. But if the late deliveries can be attributed to systematic suspicion or discriminatory intent, then we should be having a serious conversation about whether similar tendencies exist within other public sectors too, and what we might do to address them.
At this point it’s hard to tell what’s really going on, let alone why. But these initial findings definitely warrant further study. Consider this my call for further research.
Hailing from the mild-wintered Norwegian west coast, Andreas braved the godforsaken tundra known to non-locals as “Minnesota” while obtaining his B.A. in political science and philosophy. After graduating in December 2012, Andreas went on to work for the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, proving once and for all that a liberal arts degree is only almost useless. While in college, Andreas founded an organization called the Secular Student Community (which was recently approved!). On his spare time he enjoys talking theology in bars, and getting way too into Facebook discussions.
