A Closer Look at the Mechanisms of Perceived Job Discrimination: ‘How I think you think about us’

Anderson (2011) provides a rich conceptual framework describing the factors that may affect perceived job discrimination in selection. Although this framework presents a detailed agenda for future research, it is currently less clear how these factors are assumed to lead to perceived job discrimination. To advance our theoretical understanding of the mechanisms involved, I propose that research on perceived job discrimination might benefit from drawing on the social psychological literature on metastereotypes. In the current commentary, I briefly describe the concept of metastereotypes, summarize factors that have been found to affect metastereotypes and delineate potential counterintuitive implications of activated metastereotypes for dealing with perceived job discrimination and complaints in selection.