Attitudes toward the older job applicant: just as competent, but more likely to fail

Undergraduate and mid-life participants evaluated a male or female job applicant on the basis of a transcript of a job interview, answering both attitudinal and attributional questions. One-half of the participants were told that the applicant was 65 years old, one-half that the person was 25 years old. Competence of the applicant and his or her success in obtaining the job were also manipulated. Age and sex of the applicant had very little impact on attitudinal items in both the young and mid-life samples. Regardless of the target's age and sex, competent and hired applicants were rated significantly more positively on all questions than their not-hired or less competent counterparts. However, there was a significant age by hiring interaction on the attribution items. Stable factors (particularly demographic characteristics) were used more often to explain the failures of the old than the failures of the young. Implications of these results for employment prospects of the elderly as well as future attitude research are discussed.