Age Stereotypes Do Matter: Looking Through the Lens of the Attraction–Selection–Attrition Model

Murphy and DeNisi (2021) suggest that the real-world effects of age stereotypes on personnel decisions are weak, null, or inconsistent. However, we know that both conscious and unconscious age stereotypes exist (Fiske, 2017; Posthuma & Campion, 2009), and both seem to affect people’s hiring decisions (Zaniboni et al., 2019). For instance, a field experiment in Sweden in which 6,000 fictitious resumes were sent to open positions found that applicants over 40 received fewer callbacks and that callbacks decreased with applicant age (Carlsson & Eriksson, 2019). Moreover, the implementation of age discrimination laws worldwide suggests that age discrimination is generally recognized as an issue for workers and job applicants. In this commentary, we draw on the attraction–selection–attrition (ASA) model to illustrate when age stereotypes do affect personnel decisions throughout the employee lifecycle, acting “under the radar” of current organizational research. Through this lens, we suggest new avenues and approaches to understand both the mechanisms by which stereotypes work and their true effects. In doing so, we provide theory-based recommendations for researchers to better uncover when and how age stereotypes do influence personnel decisions (see Table 1).