Focusing on what matters: effects of an informational intervention and candidate disclosure on ratings of jobseekers on the autism spectrum
Abstract
Purpose
We explored whether (1) an informational intervention improves ratings of individuals on the autism spectrum (IotAS) in a job interview by curbing salience bias and whether expert-based influence amplifies this effect (Study 1); (2) the effect of disclosure of autism on ratings depends on a candidate’s presentation as IotAS or neurotypical (Studies 1 and 2) and (3) social desirability bias affects ratings of and emotional responses to disclosers (Study 2).
Design/methodology/approach
In two studies, participants, randomly assigned to experimental conditions, watched a mock job interview of a candidate presenting as an IotAS or neurotypical and reported their perception of his job suitability and selection decision. Study 2 additionally measured participants’ traits associated with social desirability bias, self-reported emotions and involuntary emotions gauged via face-reading software.
Findings
In Study 1, the informational intervention improved ratings of the IotAS-presenting candidate; delivery by an expert made no difference. Disclosure increased ratings of both the IotAS-presenting and neurotypical-presenting candidates, especially the former, and information mattered more in the absence of disclosure. In Study 2, disclosure improved ratings of the IotAS-presenting candidate only; no evidence of social desirability bias emerged.
Originality/value
We explain that an informational intervention works by attenuating salience bias, focusing raters on IotAS' qualifications rather than on their unexpected behavior. We also show that disclosure is less helpful for IotAS who behave more neuronormatively and social desirability bias affects neither ratings of nor emotional responses to IotAS-presenting job candidates.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the Zarb School of Business for supporting our project through a Behavioral Research Lab Grant and a Summer Research Grant to the first author. We also thank Rebecca M. Ferrato, Olivia L. Koenig, Jacob E. Malcom, Rudy G. Malcom, Ashley W. Sullivan, Bhavana Surapaneni and Joseph A. Zona for their contributions to this project and Mukta Kulkarni and our two anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on a previous version of our paper.
Citation
Comer, D.R., Lenaghan, J.A., Pittarello, A. and Motro, D. (2024), "Focusing on what matters: effects of an informational intervention and candidate disclosure on ratings of jobseekers on the autism spectrum", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-05-2024-0204
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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