Review of Research on Age Discrimination in the Employment Interview

Abstract

This paper reviews the research literature on age discrimination in the employment interview and related contexts. Twenty one studies were identified which explored whether age discrimination occurs within the context of the employment interview since the Age Discrimination in Employment Act was put into law. Sixteen studies were conducted in laboratory settings. It was concluded that evidence of age discrimination in the employment interview is commonly observed in laboratory studies which do not assess the influence of other job-relevant characteristics. Laboratory studies may create too much artificiality, where the impact of qualifications is artificially minimized and the impact of irrelevant factors like age are maximized. Only 5 of the 21 studies were conducted in the field, but they found far less consequential age discrimination in the employment interview.The passing of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) in 1967 has resulted in a wide variety of research into how age might impact decisions in the employment setting. For example, scholars have examined how age affects actual job performance, the nature of age stereotypes in the work setting, how age might impact performance ratings, and how age relates to recruitment, selection, and promotion decisions. This paper focuses on a subset of this research by reviewing the research literature on how applicant age might affect outcomes in the employment interview. This paper presents a narrative review of this area of research in order to summarize findings for both researchers and practitioners. This method is used to identify and explain the reasons why some studies find the occurrence of age discrimination in the employment interview context when others do not. We begin with a discussion of the methodology used to identify and select articles to be covered in the present review. This is followed by a narrative summary of key articles. We organize key research findings by first presenting lab findings and then results from field research. A chronological list of the empirical articles reviewed, and their major features, is contained in Table 1. We conclude this paper by discussing the research and practical implications. Review MethodologySeveral different means were utilized to locate relevant articles. First, the reference lists of the last four major reviews of the employment interview were searched (Arvey and Campion 1982;Harris 1989;Posthuma et al. 2002;Schmitt 1976) covering the period of time since the ADEA was passed in 1967. Second, all empirical articles in the most recent review (Posthuma et al. 2002) were manually searched to identify any studies that concern age discrimination. Third, a computer search of the published

Are Highly Structured Job Interviews Resistant to Demographic Similarity Effects?

“…Given the rigor of interviews that conform to the essential components of structure, we anticipate that similar findings would be obtained if the influence of other potential group‐level stereotypes (i.e., age, education, religion) were examined in highly structured interviews. Consistent with this proposition, there is growing evidence that age does not affect how applicants perform in structured interviews (e.g., Lin et al, 1992; Morgeson, Reider, Campion, & Bull, 2008). However, future research should examine the extent to which these findings generalize to broader attitudinal similarity variables, such as personality and values.…”

Health-related and social factors predicting non-reemployment amongst newly unemployed

“…As expected, and in accordance with official statistics, those unemployed born outside Sweden and older individuals had lower rates of reemployment . Both these difficulties may be at least partly an effect of discrimination [50,51]. More surprising is the lack of influence exerted by education, place of residence, social network, and social support.…”

The influence of cross-cultural differences on job interview selection decisions

“…McDonald and Hakel 1985;Campion, Pursell and Brown 1988;Hitt and Barr 1989;Pinar, McCuddy, Eser and Trapp 2009), older workers (e.g. Morgeson, Reider, Campion and Bull 2008) and disabled individuals (e.g. Reilly, Bocketti, Maser and Wennet 2006), the findings are surprisingly mixed (e.g.…”

“…Reilly, Bocketti, Maser and Wennet 2006), the findings are surprisingly mixed (e.g. Campion and Arvey 1989;Arvey and Faley 1992;Morgeson et al 2008). In addition, these findings cannot be generalized to foreign-born job applicants who have to grapple with cultural differences that make them vulnerable to subtle interpersonal dynamics (cf.…”