Inferring incompetence from employment status: An audit-like experiment

Audit studies demonstrate that unemployed people are less likely to receive a callback when they apply for a job than employed candidates, the reason for this is unclear. Across two experiments (N = 461), we examine whether the perceived competence of unemployed candidates accounts for this disparit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2023-03, Vol.18 (3), p.e0280596-e0280596
Main Authors: Okoroji, Celestin, Gleibs, Ilka H, Howard, Simon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Audits
Bias
Causes of
Disabled Persons
Economic aspects
Employee selection
Employment
Evaluation
Hiring
Humans
Labor market
Medical ethics
Morality
Perceptions
Personnel Selection
Physical Sciences
Research and Analysis Methods
Research ethics
Science Policy
Skewness
Social Sciences
Stereotypes
Stigma
Unemployment
United Kingdom
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Summary:Audit studies demonstrate that unemployed people are less likely to receive a callback when they apply for a job than employed candidates, the reason for this is unclear. Across two experiments (N = 461), we examine whether the perceived competence of unemployed candidates accounts for this disparity. In both studies, participants assessed one of two equivalent curriculum vitae's, differing only on the current employment status. We find that unemployed applicants are less likely to be offered an interview or hired. The relationship between the employment status of the applicant and these employment-related outcomes is mediated by the perceived competence of the applicant. We conducted a mini meta-analysis, finding that the effect size for the difference in employment outcomes was d = .274 and d = .307 respectively, while the estimated indirect effect was -.151[-.241, -.062]. These results offer a mechanism for the differential outcomes of job candidates by employment status.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0280596