The main objective of this study was to test the effects of two-way communication and one- way communication on sexist behavior in recruitment processes. Indeed, today, gender inequalities are still very present, particularly during recruitment. Two-way communication consists of telling the recruiter about positive aspects of self, but also about negative aspects and areas for improvement to increase the confidence of recruiters and thus reduce their prejudices. We have formulated eight hypotheses to meet our main objective (including 2 interaction hypotheses):
- The assessment of male and female candidates, presenting a curriculum vitae and a cover letter using two-way communication will be more favorable than the assessment of male and female candidates presenting a curriculum vitae and a cover letter using one-way communication.
- Male candidates will be assessed more favorably than female candidates.
- Male and female evaluators with a high level of sexism will assign more so-called “female” personality traits to candidates and assign more so-called “male” personality traits to men.
- Male and female candidates applying for non-prestigious positions will be assessed more favorably than male and female candidates applying for prestigious position.
- The level of sexism will be higher among male evaluators than among female assessors.
- Male and female evaluators with high levels of sexism will be less sexist with candidates applying with a curriculum vitae and a cover letter using two-way communication than with candidates applying with a curriculum vitae and a cover letter using one-way communication.
- Two-way communication will be all the more favorable when it concerns a prestigious profession rather than a non-prestigious one.
- Two-way communication will be all the more favorable when it comes to candidates applying for a prestigious job.
The sample for this study consisted of 103 participants, aged 19 to 61 years, including 37 men and 66 women with the qualifications and skills needed to assess applications. This study includes four independent variables, each of which includes two conditions: the nature of the communication (unilateral/one way: positive vs. bilateral/two-way: positive and negative), the sex of the candidate (female vs. male), the sex of the evaluator (female vs. male) and finally the status of the profession (prestigious vs. non-prestigious). It also includes four dependent variables: the assessment of the candidate’s qualification (qualified vs. unqualified), the recommendation of the candidate by the evaluator (recommended vs. unrecommended), the assessment of the candidate’s credibility (credible vs. unbelievable) and finally the level of sexism of the evaluators. Thus, in order to test our hypotheses, a questionnaire was constructed. It includes two sexism scales and a personality trait scale. The first scale was an internal sexism scale and the second a external sexism scale, allowing to understand the motivations related to sexist behaviors. The personality trait scale is a scale containing agentic characteristics, often associated with men and communal characteristics, often associated with women. This scale allows us to assess the relationship between sexism and the attribution of these characteristics.
The results are not significant for all assumptions. Thus, they show a lack of effects of two- way communication on the assessment of applications and the gender bias of recruiters. These results can be discussed. First, the number of participants is small and has a majority of women, which can bias the results. In addition, the sample included very few people with high scores on the sexism scale, which would explain the lack of effects of the type of communication. Social desirability bias can also be observed, since some questionnaires were completed in the presence of the person conducting the study. It should also be added that this questionnaire was completed by psychologists specializing in recruitment. All these biases may explain the inconclusive results of this study.
Keywords: one-way communication, two-way communication, unilateral communication, bilateral communication, prejudices, sexism, recruitment.
Words I have learned : two-way communication (communication bilatérale) ; one-way communication (communication unilatérale) ; assessor (évaluateur, peu courant).