The Consequences of Revealing First-Generational Status

Peter Belmi (), Kelly Raz (), Margaret Neale () and Melissa Thomas-Hunt ()
Additional contact information
Peter Belmi: Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903
Kelly Raz: Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business & Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 8410501 Béer Sheva, Israel
Margaret Neale: Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
Melissa Thomas-Hunt: Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903

Organization Science, 2024, vol. 35, issue 2, 667-697

Abstract: College is regarded as the great equalizer. People with four-year degrees expect to reap the rewards of their education. This paper examines the pivotal transition from college to the labor market. How do candidates fare when they reveal to prospective employers that they are “first-gen”? Based on the literature, one may advance two competing predictions. One perspective predicts the possibility of a first-gen advantage . This view predicts that revealing one’s first-gen status can help applicants, by making them seem motivated, committed, responsible, and hardworking. It also makes for a compelling narrative; many Americans love stories of “bootstrapped” success. In contrast, a competing perspective predicts the possibility of a first-generation disadvantage. According to this view, there are forces that block decision makers from recognizing the strengths of first-gen students. We tested these two perspectives with an audit study ( n = 1,783) and four follow-up studies ( n = 4,920). The results supported the first-gen disadvantage hypothesis. Even in the mainstream labor market, first-gen students were evaluated less favorably. We traced this bias to the impact of one possible mechanism: deficit thinking. Despite overcoming hardships, first-gen students were often viewed through the lens of deficits. As a consequence, they were often denied opportunities to gain entry into organizations. Importantly, we found that a mindset shift can help ameliorate the problem. When we nudged decision makers to adopt a strengths-based lens, they became more receptive to hiring first-gen applicants. This work extends knowledge on the mechanisms that drive social class gaps in hiring. It also invites a reassessment of how to study social class in organizations. Deficit models dominate the study of social class. However, as we demonstrated, focusing on deficits can exacerbate inequality. It is important to consider people’s experiences and humanity holistically.

Keywords: social class; first-gen; inequality; discrimination; race; diversity; equity; inclusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1682 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:35:y:2024:i:2:p:667-697

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Organization Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().