The Fact
Research linking job-ad language with correspondence-study results found that employers using language associated with age stereotypes also showed stronger measured discrimination against older applicants in hiring.
What This Means
Words such as those signaling a preference for youth are not necessarily harmless branding. At the employer level, age-stereotyped language can be associated with actual differences in how older applicants are treated.
Sources
- Burn, Ian, Patrick Button, Luis Munguia Corella, and David Neumark. “Does Ageist Language in Job Ads Predict Age Discrimination in Hiring?” Journal of Labor Economics 40, no. 3 (2022): 613–667. https://doi.org/10.1086/717730