Implications for practice
Research has shown that evaluators rate older and younger job applicants differently (Perry et al., 1996), and that recruiters make assumptions about applicants' personalities based on their resumes (e.g. Cole et al., 2009) or interviews. It may be that assumptions about the personality and performance of older and younger workers affect decisions made about them in organizations. Recruiters and managers could thus be trained to be aware of the potential influences of these stereotypes with the goal of reducing their effect. Moreover, with the aging of baby boomers and their increased participation in today's workforce, younger workers may also become more susceptible to negative age stereotypes. For example, older managers could prefer older workers for jobs requiring higher emotional stability, whereas younger managers could prefer younger workers for jobs demanding more openness to experience.