Will you still hire me when I am over 50? The effects of implicit and explicit age stereotyping on resume evaluations

Abstract

Multiple studies have found that older workers may be disadvantaged in their job search due to explicit age stereotypes. However, no published research has examined the effect of both explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) negative age stereotypes against older workers on hiring decisions. The current study fills this gap by using an experimental design to simultaneously examine how both explicit and implicit age stereotypes affect the evaluation of resumes for older and younger job applicants. Participants completed measures of explicit age stereotypes via a questionnaire and implicit age stereotypes with an Implicit Association Test focused on older and younger working-age people. They then completed a resume screening task that included younger and older potential applicants. Results showed that participants' explicit age stereotypes positively influenced the evaluation of younger applicants' resumes but had no significant effect on the evaluation of older applicants' resumes. Conversely, implicit age stereotypes had a negative effect on the evaluation of older applicants' resumes but had no significant effect on the evaluation of younger applicants' resumes. The results suggest that both implicit and explicit age stereotypes may harm older job applicants' hireablity, but through different pathways.

Implicit and Explicit Measurement of Work-Related Age Attitudes and Age Stereotypes

“…Previous research on ageism using the IAT generally shows moderate to strong preferences for young over old people ( Karpinski and Hilton, 2001 ; Hummert et al, 2002 ; Nosek et al, 2002 ; Greenwald et al, 2003 ; Nosek et al, 2005 ; Joy-Gaba and Nosek, 2010 ) and moderate preferences for young over old workers ( Malinen and Johnston, 2013 ; Zaniboni et al, 2019 ). However, Lin et al (2011) found neutral implicitly measured attitudes toward older people in their sample of psychology students and reasoned with the potential greater amount of time that Australian students spend with their grandparents.…”

“…First, against the background of social identity theory ( Tajfel and Turner, 1979 ), which predicts a preference for the in-group because people seek a positive social identity, the age of raters is supposed to be connected with in-group favoritism. Support comes from Kleissner and Jahn (2020) who observed a more positive evaluation of one’s own group and Zaniboni et al (2019) where explicit age stereotypes were negatively correlated with participant age. Second, the perception of the aging process as malleable is a recently found potential predictor of more positive explicit age stereotypes about older nurses ( Kleissner and Jahn, 2020 ) and we are interested if perceived malleability of the aging process probably also reduces implicitly measured prejudice.…”

“…Whereas the explicit measurement of age stereotypes typically deals with stereotype content or moderating variables, the implicit measurement of age stereotypes is typically applied to identify the influence of implicit age stereotypes on evaluations. Zaniboni et al (2019) measured implicit age stereotypes toward older workers with an IAT and found that negative implicit age stereotypes were connected with worse evaluations of older job applicants. Thus, implicit age stereotypes can lead to discriminatory behavior in the hiring process.…”

A New Perspective to Measuring Employee Growth: Developing a Successful Aging at Work Scale

“…The lack of evidence of age-related differences may be because the age characteristics of our participant groups were not specified well enough or because generally there is no clear, definitive criterion for dividing workers into "older" and "younger" (cf. Zaniboni, Kmicinska, Truxillo, Kahn, Paladino, & Fraccaroli, 2019). Also, our pilot and calibration samples did not include any participants of over 60 years of age.…”

Subjective Well-Being of the Staff of Enterprises With Different Involvement in Innovative Processes: Age Aspect

“…Трудности сохранения рабочего места и получения нового россияне начинают испытывать с 40-45 лет [2]. Не только в России, но и в развитых странах живы возрастные стереотипы, в соответствии с которыми работники старших возрастов не интересны работодателям, особенно в условиях организационных изменений, связанных с внедрением инноваций [15]. Вот только неполный список стереотипов старшего возраста: сопротивление организационным изменениям; невосприимчивость нового из-за отсутствия гибкости; снижение мотивации труда и низкий уровень вовлеченности в трудовой процесс; усталость, часто хроническая; консерватизм, потеря способности к обучению; нежелание брать на себя личную ответственность; подверженность стрессу; болезни [14].…”