Political Affiliation and Employment Screening: The role of similarity and disidentification

Abstract

Staffing/selection researchers have long focused on the influence of demographic variables such as ethnicity, gender, and age on hiring decisions, as well as the similarity of raters and ratees on these variables (e.g., McCarthy, Van Iddekinge, & Campion, 2010). However, recent research in several fields has suggested that political affiliation may be associated with substantial levels of affect and might influence employment decision-makers. We designed an experiment using a social media screening task to examine the effects of political affiliation. Our findings suggest that the disidentification (i.e., dislike) of a decision-maker with a job applicants’ political affiliation was a key variable that influenced perceived similarity. Perceived similarity was related to liking and liking to expected levels of applicant task and organizational citizenship behavior performance, consistent with the similarity-attraction paradigm. Further, these effects persisted in the presence of individuating information. Future research should address this over-looked variable in personnel decision-making.