Automatically Activated Stereotypes and Differential Treatment Against the Obese in Hiring

33 Pages Posted: 11 Nov 2008

See all articles by Dan-Olof Rooth

Dan-Olof Rooth

University of Kalmar; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

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.

Keywords: implicit stereotypes, obese job applicants, differential treatment

JEL Classification: J64, J71

Suggested Citation

Rooth, Dan-Olof, Automatically Activated Stereotypes and Differential Treatment Against the Obese in Hiring. IZA Discussion Paper No. 3799, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1298242 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1298242

Dan-Olof Rooth (Contact Author)

University of Kalmar ( email )

Sweden

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 7 / 9
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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