Automatic associations and discrimination in hiring: Real world evidence

B-Tier
Journal: Labour Economics
Year: 2010
Volume: 17
Issue: 3
Pages: 523-534

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This is the first study providing empirical support for automatically activated associations inducing discriminatory behavior among recruiters in a real-life hiring situation. Two different field experiments on ethnic discrimination in hiring are combined with a measure of employers' automatic attitudes and performance stereotypes toward Arab-Muslim men relative to Swedish men using the Implicit Association Test. The results show that the probability to invite Arab-Muslim job applicants decreases by five percentage points when the recruiter has a one standard deviation stronger negative implicit association toward Arab-Muslim men. This suggests that automatic processes may exert a significant impact on employers' hiring decisions, offering new insights into labor market discrimination.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:labeco:v:17:y:2010:i:3:p:523-534
Journal Field
Labor
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-29