Sex discrimination in simulated employment contexts: A meta-analytic investigation

This study meta-analytically tested hypotheses concerning factors that affe ct sex discrimination in simulated employment contexts. These hypotheses, d erived from the social psychological literature on stereotyping, predicted that salience of applicant sex, job sex-type, sex of rater, and amount of j ob-relevant information would affect discrimination against female and male applicants. Generally, the hypotheses concerning job sex-type and job-rele vant information were supported. Female and male applicants received lower ratings when being considered for an opposite-sex-type job, and the differe nce between ratings of males and females decreased as more job-relevant inf ormation was provided. However, ratings of males and females did not differ as hypothesized in regard to salience of sex and rater sex. The research a nd practice implications of these results are discussed. (C) 2000 Academic Press.