Research has shown that hiring discrimination is a barrier for older job candidates in many OECD countries. However, little research has delved into why these job candidates face discrimination. Therefore, we have conducted an online scenario experiment involving recruiters to empirically investigate 15 potential stigmas related to older age drawn from a systematic review of the literature. We found that older age particularly signals to recruiters that the applicant has lower technological skills, flexibility, and trainability levels. Together, these perceptions explain about 41% of the effect of age on the probability of being invited to a job interview. Additionally, we found that the negative association between age and the invitation to interview probability is smaller when recruiters work for firms with a higher percentage of older employees.

研究表明，在许多经合组织国家，招聘歧视是年龄较大的求职者的障碍。然而，很少有研究深入探讨这些求职者为何面临歧视。因此，我们进行了一项涉及招聘人员的在线情景实验，从对文献的系统审查中，对 15 种与老年相关的潜在污名进行实证调查。我们发现，年龄越大，尤其是向招聘人员表明申请人的技术技能、灵活性和可培训性水平较低。总之，这些看法解释了年龄对被邀请参加工作面试的可能性的影响的 41%。此外，我们发现，当招聘人员为年长员工比例较高的公司工作时，年龄与面试邀请概率之间的负相关较小。