The Effects of Sex and Ethnicity on Evaluations of Advertising Job Candidates: Do Stereotypes Predict Discrimination?

Women and people of color are not employed in the advertising industry to the extent that might be expected given their proportion in the population. This study examines whether this employment record might be the result of biases against hiring women and people of color. In their evaluations of fictitious candidates for advertising jobs, advertising students were found to discriminate against females and African-Americans through a significant main effect for candidate sex and a significant two-way interaction for candidate ethnicity by qualifications. These effects were not moderated by respondent feminist beliefs, respondent racist beliefs or respondent sex.