Supervisors: Jacob Orquin & Carsten Bergenholtz
Discussants: Marco Hubert & Bart Verwaeren

Abstract
Bias in hiring arises not only from evaluators’ preferences but also from how information is structured and processed. Across three studies, we examine how the order of CV information (professional vs. personal upfront) and the evaluation context (observable vs. private) shape candidate assessments. Using eye-tracking in the lab and controlled online experiments, we find that professional qualifications dominate evaluations overall, but biases against ethnic minority and older candidates emerge in private, online contexts without monitoring. Eye-tracking data reveal that evaluators consistently attend more to professional information, yet the weight assigned to personal details varies by accountability conditions. These findings show that discrimination in hiring is less a function of information exposure than of cue weighting at the judgment stage. Conceptually, we integrate judgment and decision-making mechanisms (order effects, adaptive cue weighting, and accountability) into recruitment research. Practically, our results suggest that structured evaluation environments and accountability mechanisms can reduce bias and enhance fairness in selection processes.

Keywords: hiring discrimination, eye tracking, selective attention, attentional bias

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