Do Age Stereotypes Predict Personnel Decisions? The State of the Evidence

It is widely believed that older workers are likely to fare badly in recruitment and hiring, promotion, pay, training opportunities, layoffs, and termination (Garstka et al., 2005; Kita, 2019), and that negative stereotypes of older workers contribute significantly to these outcomes (Finkelstein et al., 2012; Ng & Feldman, 2012; Posthuma & Campion, 2009; Posthuma et al., 2012; Toomey & Rudolph, 2015; von Hippel et al., 2019; Weiss & Perry, 2020). Similar arguments have been raised with regard to the role of stereotypes in discrimination on the basis of gender (Bielby, 2005; Chaxel, 2015; Fuegen, 2007; Heilman, 2012; Heilman & Eagly, 2008) and race and ethnicity (Bodenhausen, 1988; Leslie et al., 2008). The hypothesis that stereotypes substantially affect judgments and decisions in organizations is usually based on a model similar to...