This blog reports our take in research in social psychology with special emphasis on the international review of social psychology. To stay tuned on what happens on the blogosphere, this blog also reviews and broadcasts few of the most relevant articles published on other social psychology blogs!

Mar 7, 2016

When age-based and gender-based discrimination are expressed differently: explicit and implicit prejudice bias the recruitment process



       Every workplace consists of people coming from various social, cultural, ethnic or religious backgrounds, to name only a few human differences at the origin of a potential discrimination. Regardless of the fact that the law prohibits employers to make decisions based on such criteria, discrimination remains a pervasive force in the workplace. Indeed, discriminatory treatments continue to occur in many different forms, based on characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or even weight.



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       Whereas a number of actions regarding the battle for gender equality have been implemented, the rights of elders are comparatively accorded less attention, at least by non-specialists. Whether due to outdated skills or prejudicial attitudes towards them, older job seekers often find themselves being forced to withdraw from the labor market or accepting much lower job salaries than they were able to earn. Despite the fact that it is illegal to discriminate against a person because of his or her age with respect to any term of employment (hiring, firing, promotion, layoff, compensation, job assignments…), the inhibiting power of the legislations acting upon gender-based discrimination seems greater than the inhibiting power of the legislations acting upon ageist treatment. Does it have an impact on the expression of discrimination in a recruitment situation? 

       To deal with these concerns, a new article published by Alice Faure and André Ndobo (2015) in the International Review of Social Psychology examines the discourse and responses from 140 recruiters and managers about applicants who were either male or female and younger or older. 

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Gender-based and age-based discrimination: overt or covert processes?

       Participants were asked to examine and evaluate an application file submitted for a Customer Relationship Officer position in a bank. They received a booklet containing a recap note about the job offer and a description of required skills and daily tasks. They also received an applicant's resume, describing either a man or a woman, either a highly qualified or a poorly qualified person, and either a 27 years old or a 52 years old person. Then, participants were asked to assess the hiring chances of the described candidate and to provide a written justification for their answer. Thus, the task used by the authors allows access to explicit assessments as well as discursive markers in the discourse, which could reveal a possible discriminatory attitude.

Implicit attitudes revealed by the discourse: the “yes-but” strategy

       To determine if the recruiters’ discourse hide potential discriminatory aspects, the authors conducted a qualitative analysis of the written statements provided by the participants. Two independent coders examined the discursive markers contained in the discourse: the presence of positive or negative evaluative components (e.g., competent, poorly qualified), markers of uncertainty or distance (e.g., maybe, however, but), aspects conveying conviction (e.g., I think that, I believe that) and intensifiers (e.g., absolutely, very much). The authors were then able to compare the explicit evaluations of recruiters with such characteristics detected in their discourses, according to the applicant profile. The results showed that recruiters did not explicitly express sexist prejudices in their evaluation of the applicants, considering men and women as equally eligible for the offered position when they were qualified. Nonetheless, gender-based discrimination was sometimes expressed in a more subtle way. Indeed, an analysis comparing younger women and younger men showed a more extensive use of doubt markers in discourses about women than men. If gender-based discrimination is not explicitly expressed, markers in the discourse appear to convey some pro-masculine bias for younger applicants.


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       Besides, further results pointed out that older applicants were penalized by their age.  At the same level of qualification, an older applicant is given less hiring chances than a younger one by recruiters. And this is not getting better when analyzing the discourse markers. Negative components were more frequent for older than younger applicants, and recruiters displayed more doubt markers about them. Apparently, aged-based discrimination is both covert and overt.



Source: shutterstock


       Non-sexist policies seem to fulfill their intended inhibiting function, better than non-ageist policies at least. Sexism seems to manifest itself more implicitly than explicitly, although this does not prevent the “glass ceiling” for women executives, and no real “equal-pay for equal-work” to exist. In both cases, these deeply entrenched biased dynamics can directly impact hiring decisions, promotions, or salaries and can be the trigger for a psychological disengagement process.


            Reference:

Faure, A., Ndobo, A. (2015). On gender-based and aged-based discrimination: when the social ingraining and acceptability of non discriminatory norms matter. International Review of Social Psychology / Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale28(4), 7-43.


Related topics, in the IRSP

Delroisse, S., Herman, G., & Yzerbyt, V. (2012). La justification au cœur de la discrimination: vers une articulation des processus motivationnels et cognitifs. International Review of Social Psychology / Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale, 25(2), 73-96.
Lagacé, M., Tougas, F., Laplante, J., & Neveu, J. F. (2010). Communication âgiste au travail: une voie vers le désengagement psychologique et la retraite des infirmières d'expérience?. International Review of Social Psychology / Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale23(4), 91-121. 
Ndobo, A. (2009). Biais sexistes et marques d'inégalité de genre dans le discours des recruteurs: un effet de la persistance des discriminations sexistes dans l'accès au travail. International Review of Social Psychology / Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale22(1), 107-136.
Ndobo, A. (2014). Attractiveness effect and the hidden discourse of discrimination in recruitment: the moderating role of job types and gender of applicants. International Review of Social Psychology / Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale,, 27(1), 127-144.









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