Title
Are job qualifications only skin deep? How stigma against tattoos can result in failing to hire more qualified job candidates
Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Historically, tattoos and other body modification techniques have often been attributed to individuals that engage in negative behaviors, such as violence, sexual promiscuity and other less-than-healthy practices. Despite the stigma that has developed surrounding tattoos, the popularity of body-modification continues to rise. The current experiment analyzed the responses from 56 participants that completed a hiring simulation. The results of the study demonstrate that participants that had the lowest level of stigma against tattoos tended to make hiring decisions based on job qualifications and were more likely to hire job candidates that were more qualified when compared to minimally qualified job candidates regardless of the presence of visible tattoos on the job candidate. However, those with the highest levels of stigma against tattoos were more likely to make hiring decisions based solely on whether or not the job candidate had visible tattoos, and not based on job qualifications. Future research is recommended and practical considerations are discussed.
Date
10-22-2016
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Are job qualifications only skin deep? How stigma against tattoos can result in failing to hire more qualified job candidates
Historically, tattoos and other body modification techniques have often been attributed to individuals that engage in negative behaviors, such as violence, sexual promiscuity and other less-than-healthy practices. Despite the stigma that has developed surrounding tattoos, the popularity of body-modification continues to rise. The current experiment analyzed the responses from 56 participants that completed a hiring simulation. The results of the study demonstrate that participants that had the lowest level of stigma against tattoos tended to make hiring decisions based on job qualifications and were more likely to hire job candidates that were more qualified when compared to minimally qualified job candidates regardless of the presence of visible tattoos on the job candidate. However, those with the highest levels of stigma against tattoos were more likely to make hiring decisions based solely on whether or not the job candidate had visible tattoos, and not based on job qualifications. Future research is recommended and practical considerations are discussed.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology