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Related Experiment Videos

Motivated reasoning during recruitment.

Heather Barry Kappes1, Emily Balcetis2, David De Cremer3

  • 1Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science.

The Journal of Applied Psychology
|October 13, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Job postings with vague qualifications increase applicant entitlement, making them feel more deserving of hiring and higher pay. Reducing vague language in job ads can mitigate this, though it may lower application rates.

Area of Science:

  • Organizational Psychology
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • Entitlement beliefs can negatively impact recruitment and retention.
  • Job postings may inadvertently foster entitlement in applicants.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how vague qualifications in job postings influence job candidates' entitlement beliefs.
  • To determine if reducing vague qualifications can mitigate entitlement.

Main Methods:

  • A 2-phase experiment (N=892) using real online job postings with varying qualification vagueness.
  • A follow-up preregistered experiment (N=905) with mixed qualification types.

Main Results:

  • Participants felt more deserving of hiring and higher pay after reading job postings with vaguer qualifications.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Yoked observers did not discount entitlement based on qualification vagueness.
  • The effect of vague qualifications on entitlement was replicated in a mixed-qualification setting.

    • Conclusions:

    • Vague job qualifications foster applicant entitlement, potentially complicating recruitment.
    • Reducing vague language in job postings may decrease applicant entitlement but could also reduce application rates and confidence.