Vietnam Veterans: Fighting the Employment War

The extent and nature of unfairly discriminatory hiring practices involving Vietnam veterans was experimentally explored. Sixty‐six supervisors and mid‐level managers reviewed the resume of an applicant and the position description for the job being sought. Given otherwise identical qualifications, the applicant was described as either a Vietnam veteran or a non‐Vietnam veteran. Results demonstrated that subjects made significantly lower recommendations to hire the Vietnam veteran even though both applicants were judged equally qualified for the job. The Vietnam veteran was also perceived to have a higher probability of psychological problems in his life. Findings are discussed in the context of Asch's (1946) central trait theory.