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This paper builds on and updates Koser et al. (1999) and Feria et al. (2014) by investigating the degree to which individuals applying for executive, administrative and manual job positions may experience bias in selection, owing to self-reported mental and/or physical disabilities in a United Kingdom (UK) sample. Comparing the impact of different disclosed disabilities on anticipated candidate selection ratings found no evidence that people with a former mental or physical illness were rated lower than those without such conditions. Mediation analyses revealed anticipated deficits in attributes stereotypically low in mental health patients, i.e., dependability or resilience, contributed to participants' negativity in predicted competence of presented candidates. Our findings suggest that disclosing a psychiatric history of anxiety in an employment context may not impact career opportunities. However, heightened associations with mental illness stereotypes were shown to impact the professional fitness evaluations of individuals disclosing previous mental ill health.
Keywords: Anxiety disorder, employment outcomes, workers with mental illness, hiring decisions, discrimination
Anxiety disorders (AD) are the most prevalent global mental health conditions across all ages (Baxter et al., 2014; Essau et al., 2018; Kessler et al., 2005; Kessler et al., 2007; Polanczyk et al., 2015; Stein et al., 2017) with a past year prevalence rate of 6.7% (Steel et al., 2014) and a 10.4% lifetime prevalence in western cultures (Baxter et al., 2013). Based on data by the World Health Organisation's World Mental Health Survey (Kessler & Üstün, 2004; Moussavi et al., 2007), across low, middle and high-income countries, measured by means of the Sheehan Disability Score out of all mental health disorders, AD were found the most disabling for sufferers and scored even higher on the measures than some physical conditions, including cancer (Ormel et al., 2008).
Correspondence Experiments
Causal evidence of direct discrimination in the labour market is difficult to uncover, not least since such behaviour is prohibited by law and managers therefore are hesitant to state true reasons for hiring decisions. Other approaches, e.g., employment rate comparisons or subjective perceptions do suggest labour market discrimination, however, they should be interpreted with caution due to the high number of confounders (Hipes et al., 2016). Although research on labour market discrimination against people with current or former mental health issues has been conducted, this...