Do They Find You on Facebook? Facebook Profile Picture and Hiring Chances

Stijn Baert

No 9584, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigate whether the publicly available information on Facebook about job applicants affects employers' hiring decisions. To this end, we conduct a field experiment in which fictitious job applications are sent to real job openings in Belgium. The only characteristic in which these candidates differ is the unique Facebook profile that can be found online with their name. Candidates with the most beneficial Facebook picture obtain approximately 39% more job interview invitations compared to candidates with the least beneficial picture. In addition, we find suggestive evidence for a higher effect of Facebook profile picture appearance on hiring chances when candidates are highly educated and when recruiters are female.

Keywords: personality; Internet; Facebook; screening; hiring; attractiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D83 J24 J79 L86 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2015-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-hrm, nep-ict, nep-lab and nep-soc
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Published - revised version published as 'Facebook profile picture appearance affects recruiterd first hiring decisions' in: New Media & Society , 2018, 20 (3), 1220 - 1239

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