In your face: a comparative field experiment on racial discrimination in Europe

Abstract

We present the first large-scale comparative field experiment on appearance-based racial discrimination in hiring conducted in Europe. Using a harmonized methodology, we sent fictitious résumés to real vacancies in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, randomly varying applicants’ ethnic ancestry (signaled foremost by name) and applicants’ racial appearance (signaled by photographs). Applicants are young-adult country nationals born to parents from over 40 different countries of ancestry (N = 12 783). We examine average differences in callback across four phenotypic groups and four regions of ancestry and present the first cross-country comparable estimates of appearance-based racial discrimination reported in the field-experimental literature. We find that applicants’ phenotype has a significant and independent effect on employers’ responses in Germany and the Netherlands, whereas in Spain we only find evidence of hiring discrimination for particular combinations of phenotype and ancestry, which suggests a less direct and more complex effect of phenotype in this country. Implications are discussed.

The boundary within: Are applicants of Southern European descent discriminated against in Northern European job markets?

“…The benchmark ancestry is sub-Saharan African, which includes applicants of Nigerian and Ugandan parents. As explained above, we chose this latter ancestry as benchmark because we know sub-Saharan descendants are one of the most (if not the most) strongly discriminated groups across Europe and thus provide an obvious yardstick with which to compare the intensity of the other discrimination estimates (Weichselbaumer, 2017;Di Stasio et al, 2021;Polavieja, 2022). Finally, we use French descendants as a placebo ancestry to distinguish between ingroup favoritism and targeted outgroup rejection as two distinct drivers of ethnic discrimination, as explained above.…”

“…Because we are also interested in gauging the intensity of the observed effects, we compare our discrimination estimates for Greek, Spanish and Italian descendants to those found for identical applicants of sub-Saharan African descent. We chose this group as a benchmark treatment because we know people of sub-Saharan African descent are subjected to particularly severe levels of discrimination in Europe, as consistently revealed by both individual (self-perceived) reports (see European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2017), as well as by the existing field experimental evidence (Weichselbaumer, 2017;Di Stasio et al, 2021;Polavieja, 2022).…”

“We choose this CV because we choose diversity” – What do eye movements say about the choices recruiters make?

“…First, the process and mechanisms of how discrimination is perpetuated, pertaining to the question of why discrimination persist. Second, even though studies that address the different functions of ethnicity and race on the CVs are emerging (e.g., Di Stasio and Larsen, 2020 ; Fibbi et al, 2022 ; Polavieja et al, 2023 ), how race and ethnicity as a separate factor may play a role in discrimination still needs to be clarified.…”

Examining double standards in layoff preferences and expectations for gender, age, and ethnicity when violating the social norm of vaccination

“…Women, older people, and ethnic minorities are subject to discrimination and social biases in the workplace, which arise through different mechanisms 38 – 42 . Whether due to negative stereotypes that are translated into prejudice in work settings 43 , preferring members of the same social status group 44 , or inferring attributions from the social status of the group 45 , previous research demonstrates biases against women, older people, and ethnic minorities in work contexts.…”

“…The relevance of these mechanisms differs among these status groups, but the outcomes in terms of disadvantage are similar, e.g., lower chances of being hired and higher chances of being laid off. Disadvantages in hiring are consistently found for some groups based on race and ethnicity 42 , 46 , 47 , as well as for older people 48 . This is also the case for women 49 , but also with contrasting findings 50 .…”