Impression Management as a Way of Reducing Formal and Subtle Discrimination against Older Job Candidates
Given the increasingly aging population in most industrialized societies, the current workforce is becoming increasingly age-diverse. However, discrimination against older employees is still prevalent, especially in employment contexts, rendering research on ways for reducing it a particularly pressing issue. Drawing on theories on social identity and impression management, this research examines the effectiveness of impression management contradicting the older worker stereotype, in mitigating discrimination against older job candidates. Across two experimental hiring simulations, the current paper goes beyond previous research to investigate the role of such tactics for reducing both formal and subtle discrimination against older male and female candidates. The first study revealed social-identity based impression management appears helpful in mitigating but not entirely eradicating formal discrimination against older male candidates and has little impact on reducing subtle discrimination. The second study, however, shows that this type of impression management involving self-promotion does not have an impact on neither formal nor subtle discrimination against older females. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that bias against older job candidates is manifested beyond the formal level, and that impression management strategies have differential outcomes for different group members.