Reducing class-based prejudice with simple reminders of how socioeconomic background impacts individual achievements

Abstract: Individuals from low socioeconomic status (SES) often face obstacles for attaining “hirable” qualifications as well as biases in the hiring process. Considering these biases, one may conclude that people ought to conceal their socioeconomic background when being evaluated. Yet we find that emphasizing one’s lower SES decreases social class biases in interpersonal judgments (N = 2186). Our studies suggest that a simple reminder of how SES can negatively impact achievements attenuates (Studies 1a and 1b), reverses (Studies 2a and 2b), and eliminates (Study 2c) class biases in hiring decisions. Moreover, in a two-step ecologically valid design, we find that this simple reminder leads supervisees to make more favorable hiring recommendations to their supervisors who end up more willing to interview and hire them (Study 3).

Keywords: Social class bias; Socioeconomic status; Diversity initiatives

Topic: DEI   |   Format: Full Paper