THE EFFECT OF SEX SIMILARITY ON RECRUITERS EVALUATIONS OF ACTUAL APPLICANTS - A TEST OF THE SIMILARITY-ATTRACTION PARADIGM

The present study examined the effect of sex similarity on recruiters' evaluations of actual applicants in campus interviews and tested whet her perceived similarity and interpersonal attraction mediated this ef fect. Structural equation modeling was performed on data from 476 camp us interviews. The results revealed complex effects of sex similarity on recruiters' decision processes. Perceived similarity and interperso nal attraction mediated the effect of sex similarity on female recruit ers' assessments of applicants' qualifications. Unexpectedly, female r ecruiters saw male applicants as more similar to themselves and more q ualified than female applicants. For male recruiters, interview outcom es were not affected by sex similarity. Social identity theory, which suggests that the status associated with demographic characteristics m ay influence the nature of demographic similarity effects, provides a possible explanation for the findings.