Hiring discrimination against highly competent candidates: An investigation of competence and warmth stereotypes, and cooperative/competitive mindsets

Abstract

Hiring discrimination can discourage highly competent candidates from seeking jobs abroad thus undermining the effectiveness of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community Mutual Recognition Arrangements (AEC MRA).  To determine if such discrimination exists among Thais, this study investigates hiring decisions regarding salary assignment and probation placement of highly competent candidates as a function of the competence and warmth stereotype of the candidate’s ethnicity and the perception that the AEC MRA is a cooperation or a competition between member countries. This study uses an experimental design and employs a 2 (competence stereotype: high vs. low) x 2 (warmth stereotype: high vs. low) x 2 (mindset: cooperative vs. competitive) analysis of covariance with prejudice as a covariate. Results show that the competence and warmth stereotypes of the candidate’s ethnicity interact to predict participant’s salary rating, and the competence stereotype also predicts participant’s probation placement rating when controlling for prejudice. However, results reveal that participants’ cooperative or competitive mindset regarding the AEC MRA did not affect their salary rating or probation placement rating when controlling for prejudice.