Social Media and Political Affiliation: How Expressing Hot-Button Opinions Affects Raters’ Assessments of Job Applicants
研究发现，求职者在社交媒体上表达移民等热点政治观点会显著影响招聘经理对其相似性、好感度及工作能力的评价，甚至超过工作相关信息，提醒企业注意社交媒体筛选的潜在偏见。
Practice- and Policy-Oriented Abstract People frequently post their views on hot-button issues, such as immigration, on social media platforms on which the content is often publicly accessible to broad audiences. One of these audiences is hiring managers as more than 50% of organizations report viewing job applicants’ accounts as part of social media screening during the hiring process. Our research shows that applicants’ social media activity on hot-button issues can significantly impact their hireability. In a study of 377 professionals with hiring experience, we find that viewing applicants’ social media posts about immigration influenced judgments of similarity, likability, and two dimensions of hireability: expected task performance and expected organizational citizenship behaviors. Surprisingly, the hot-button posts outweighed job-relevant information regardless of where (Facebook or Twitter) the content was viewed; this indicates hiring managers generalized their impressions across social media platforms. A post hoc qualitative applicability check with 79 hiring managers confirmed these findings. Our study highlights the risks of using hedonic social media for screening job applicants, emphasizing the need for organizations to be mindful of how personal disclosures online can unintentionally influence hiring decisions.