Equal Outcomes, but Different Treatment – Subtle Discrimination in Email Responses From a Correspondence Test in Switzerland
Open accessAbstract
Correspondence tests on discrimination usually report only whether an applicant was invited for a job interview or not. Yet, data from a field experiment in Switzerland demonstrate that candidates with the same outcome are not necessarily treated equally. The paper complements correspondence test results with information on the time elapsed until candidates were contacted, as well as qualitative differences in invitation or rejection emails.
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Even equal treatment at the callback level may conceal subtler differences in treatment, as shown by Zschirnt (2019).
“Additionally, even equal treatment at the callback level may conceal subtler differences in treatment, as shown by Zschirnt (2019).”
From Comparative Perspectives on Racial Discrimination in Hiring: The Rise of Field Experiments (2021) · cites this paper as Zschirnt (2019)
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Cites
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Comparative Perspectives on Racial Discrimination in Hiring: The Rise of Field Experiments
Quillian, L., & Midtbøen, A. H. (2021) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-090420-035144 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
- Authors
- Zschirnt, E.
- Affiliations
- European University Institute (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Zschirnt, Eva
- ORCID
- Zschirnt, Eva
- Venue
- Swiss Journal of Sociology
- Published
- 2019-08-17
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 143-160
- ISSN
- 0379-3664 (ISSN-L)
- 2297-8348
- OpenAlex
- W2969977721
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 4.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Swiss Journal of Sociology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Cadmus - EUI Research Repository (European University Institute) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Law › Discrimination and Equality Law
- Keywords
- subtle discrimination, correspondence test, job applications, time-to-contact, hiring discrimination, field experiments
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