Diana Galos (Aarhus)

New Directions in Discrimination Research

Abstract. Discrimination in the labour market is problematic, and it is pertinent to understand what explains the inconsistency in findings as well as the new ways that could potentially amplify discrimination. In the first part of the presentation, I focus on inconsistencies in the experimental evidence on discrimination based on gender. While some studies find heterogeneity in the effect of being a woman (versus being a man) in hiring by the gender composition of occupations, others do not. Thus, by conducting a meta-analysis of 57 audit studies on gender-based discrimination in hiring, I show that both men and women are discriminated against, but that it depends on whether the field is dominated by their own gender. In the second part of the presentation, I consider the overlooked nature of social media platforms in terms of discrimination. In this regard, I investigate discrimination based on social class via social media platforms in hiring by leveraging (i) an original online survey experiment and (ii) a field experiment that both manipulate cultural markers of social class expressed on the social media platform Twitter. The findings reveal that, while individuals’ online presence might not be part of the formal application process, it does seem to influence hiring decisions, specifically by shaping inferences about applicants’ employability, competence, and warmth.