The Impact of the Wording of Employment Advertisements on Students' Inclination to Apply for a Job
Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Students' inclination to apply for a job was examined as a function of (1) the wording of the desired candidate's profile specified in the employment advertisement and (2) applicant gender. Previous research found that women are more inclined than men to apply for jobs that include a profile corresponding to their gender (i.e., a profile containing prototypically feminine instead of masculine personal characteristics). Based on Fiedler and Semin's (1996) Fiedler, K. and Semin, G. R. 1996. “Language in applied contexts”. In Applied social psychology, Edited by: Fiedler, K. and Semin, G. R. 91–109. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [Google Scholar] Linguistic Category Model, we expected that this effect would decrease if the desired profile was worded in terms of behaviors/verbs instead of nouns/adjectives. ANOVA supported this reasoning for women but not for men. We conclude that organizations may increase the number of women applying for particular jobs by changing the presentation form of the advertisement.
Source: The Journal of Social Psychology
Authors: Marise Ph. Born, Toon W. Taris
Institutions: Erasmus University Rotterdam, Utrecht University
Language: English
Topic: Gender Studies in Language
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2005013174