What does job applicants' body art signal to employers?

Stijn Baert, Jolien Herregods and Philippe Sterkens
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Philippe Sterkens: -

Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium from Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Abstract: In this study, we present a state-of-the-art scenario experiment which, for the first time in the literature, directly measures the stigma surrounding job candidates with tattoos and piercings using real recruiters. We find that job candidates with body art are perceived as less pleasant to work with, less honest, less emotionally stable, less agreeable, less conscientious and less manageable. This goes hand in hand with lower hireability for men with body art but not for women. Compared to candidates who reveal obesity, a characteristic we also randomise, those with body art score better overall in terms of hireability and rated personality, similar in terms of rated taste to collaborate but worse in terms of rated direct productivity drivers.

Keywords: body art; obesity; stigma; personality; hiring; taste discrimination; statistical discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 J24 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2023-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-hea and nep-lma
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http://wps-feb.ugent.be/Papers/wp_23_1072.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: What does job applicants’ body art signal to employers? (2024)
Working Paper: What Does Job Applicants' Body Art Signal to Employers? (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rug:rugwps:23/1072

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