What do the rural Northeast and the rural South have in common?
Well, according to Google searches, they are the most racist places in America.
A study conducted by PLOS ONE used incidences of searches containing the N-word to calculate the results, a methodology the researchers thought was useful for its simplicity.
“Google data, evidence suggests, are unlikely to suffer from major social censoring,” the author of the study, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, wrote previously. “Google searchers are online and likely alone, both of which make it easier to express socially taboo thoughts.”
The Washington Post thought it helpful to remind readers that not all people who Google the N-word are racist, and not all racists Google the N-word.
Still, the authors of the study note the methodology “correlates strongly” with other ways social scientists have measured attitudes about race.
Aside from the Gulf Coast region and a stretch of the Appalachians along the East Coast, other concentrated areas of racist Googling include Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and a section of Ohio.
The Midwest and West Coast appear to be in the clear.
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