The authors of this study point out that the “lost letter technique” has been used
successfully over the past few decades as an unobtrusive measure of people’s attitudes
and behavior. The technique has been used, for example, to study voting preferences,
racial prejudice, and political attitudes. Investigators using this method randomly
distribute stamped, addressed letters or postcards that vary in some significant way.
For example, letters addressed to a well-known conservative political group along with
letters addressed to a more liberal organization might be dropped in various
neighborhoods. The dependent variable is the return rate of these “lost” letters and is
considered a measure of the community’s attitudes towards such organizations.
Presumably, someone would be less likely to place a letter in a mail box when the letter
Is addressed to an organization that the person dislikes than when a letter is addressed
to an organization that is favored by the person finding the letter