“Are They Watching You? The Effect of Disclosing Information on Social Networking Websites on Employers’ Hiring Decisions,” Diana Galos, European University Institute

Event time: 
Friday, November 8, 2019 - 12:00pm through 1:15pm
Location: 
Institution for Social & Policy Studies (ISPS) Room A001
77 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Speaker: 
Diana Galos, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the European University Institute in Florence, and a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Yale University
Event description: 

ISPS EXPERIMENTS WORKSHOP

Abstract: With the expansion of freely available information on social networking websites, it is unclear whether during the hiring process employers are influenced by candidates’ information disclosed on social media. In trying to understand one of the mechanisms by which individuals from upper class backgrounds are more advantaged on the labour market than working class individuals even if they have the same level of education, one explanation would be the signalling of cultural and social taste. Because of information asymmetry, employers try to infer information about candidates from their CVs. However, in contexts where there might be little information on CVs but more information available in the online space, will employers use individuals’ profiles on social media such as Instagram as a replacement mechanism? The information available on social media might act as cues to the candidate’s behavior and social class which in turn, can influence employers’ hiring decisions. In the talk, I will present the design of a field experiment which aims to test whether employers discriminate based on job candidates’ Instagram profiles. I will also present the results of a pre-test that involved ran online survey measuring perceived social class signalled on individuals’ Instagram profiles.

Diana Galos is a Ph.D Candidate in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at European University Institute and a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the Department of Political Science at Yale University.  Diana’s interests fall in four broad categories: educational inequalities with a focus on social stratification, gender, migration, and discrimination.

Open to: 
Yale Faculty, Yale Postdoctoral Trainees, Yale Graduate and Professional Students