Automatically activated stereotypes and differential treatment against the obese in hiring

Arbeitspapier

This study provides empirical support for automatically activated associations inducing unequal treatment against the obese among recruiters in a real-life hiring situation. A field experiment on differential treatment against obese job applicants in hiring is combined with a measure of employers' automatic/implicit performance stereotype toward obese relative to normal weight using the implicit association test. We find a strong and statistically significant obesity difference in the correlation between the automatic stereotype of obese as being less productive and the callback rate for an interview. This suggests that automatic processes may exert a significant impact on employers' hiring decisions, offering new insights into labor market discrimination.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 3799

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
• Subject: Implicit stereotypes ; obese job applicants ; differential treatment ; Personalbeschaffung ; Arbeitsmarktdiskriminierung ; Gesundheitsrisiko ; Feldforschung ; Schweden

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Rooth, Dan-Olof
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2008

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/35344
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-20081126748
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET