Study: Job Applicants Seen As ‘Less American’ Face Hidden Hiring Bias

Same Resume, Different Name: Study Exposes Hidden Hiring Bias Against Asian, Arab, Latino Americans

Two equally qualified candidates apply for the same job. Same education, same experience, same skills. One has the last name Jackson. The other has the last name Wong. The posting calls for “strong English skills” and “familiarity with American customs.” Who looks more hirable? A new study says the answer depends on which racial group the applicant appears to belong to.

Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Maryland found that Asian, Arab, and Latino American job applicants face a specific form of hiring bias rooted in the stereotype that they are “culturally foreign,” essentially less American than their Black or White counterparts. Related patterns showed up across four controlled experiments with more than 2,100 participants and an analysis of 330 real employment discrimination court cases, with the full findings published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Results suggest that assumptions about who counts as a “real American” can quietly shape who is seen as hirable, and may help explain some real workplace discrimination claims.

Not all jobs triggered the bias equally. It showed up most powerfully for positions that prized traits tied to American identity, things like English fluency, patriotism, or knowledge of American government regulations, targeting certain racial groups more than others.

Hiring Bias Based on “Americanness,” Not Competence

Led by Terrènce Pope, Sapna Cheryan, and colleagues, the research team designed a series of experiments asking participants to act as hiring managers. In the first study, 1,039 White American adults recruited through the online platform Prolific reviewed resumes for a fictional job posting deliberately designed to stress stereotypically American characteristics: U.S. citizenship, “strong English skills,” and familiarity with “American customs and traditions.”

Each participant reviewed three resumes identical in qualifications. The only difference was the names attached. Some carried stereotypically Asian American names like Tony Wong or Jimmy Chan. Others had stereotypically Latino American names like Martin Gonzalez or Victor Lopez. Still others bore stereotypically Black American names like Tyrone Jefferson or DeShawn Jackson. The Asian and Latino American first names were deliberately English-sounding, the kind many immigrants and children of immigrants adopt to avoid bias.

Even with those English-sounding first names, the results were notable. Only 21% of participants selected the Asian American applicant, and just 23% chose the Latino American applicant. Meanwhile, 57% selected the Black American applicant. Several possible explanations were tested, including perceptions of competence, warmth, and political views. None fully accounted for the disparity. Perceived cultural foreignness was the strongest driver. On a seven-point scale, Asian American applicants scored an average of 2.59 and Latino American applicants scored 2.51 on perceived foreignness, compared to just 1.72 for Black American applicants.

Different Jobs Trigger Different Hiring Bias Patterns

A second study introduced another variable: the type of job. White American undergraduate students, in a hypothetical hiring task, evaluated two applicants for one of three positions. One stressed stereotypically American traits. Another stressed high-status traits like technical skills and advanced education. A third was a neutral control.

For the stereotypically American job, just 25% of participants chose the Asian American applicant while 75% chose the Black American applicant. When the job stressed high-status characteristics instead, the gap narrowed sharply: 37% chose the Asian American applicant and 63% chose the Black American applicant. For the neutral job, selections were nearly even. Bias is not uniform. It shifts considerably depending on which traits a job posting emphasizes.

Studies three and four broadened the research to include Arab American and White American applicants and tested both male and female names. Participants, MBA students in one study and undergraduates in another, were asked how they thought typical U.S. hiring managers would evaluate the applicants rather than giving their own opinions, capturing shared cultural assumptions rather than individual bias alone. For the stereotypically American job, Asian, Arab, and Latino American men and women were all perceived as less hirable than Black Americans, who were themselves perceived as less hirable than White Americans. Put differently, the more a group was stereotyped as culturally foreign, the lower they ranked in perceived hireability for that kind of role.

Court Records Show Patterns Consistent With Lab Results

Researchers also analyzed 330 employment discrimination court cases from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission database. These cases do not show how common this discrimination is across the whole labor market, but they do show that the same kind of language appears in real disputes. Asian, Arab, and Latino American plaintiffs were more likely than Black American plaintiffs to report discrimination based on cultural foreignness stereotypes, being questioned about citizenship, mocked for their speech or background, or treated as outsiders despite being American. While this observational analysis cannot establish cause and effect, it suggests the biases documented in the lab also surface in real workplaces.

Many common job postings include language about English fluency, cultural fit, or familiarity with American regulations. These requirements may seem neutral, but the research suggests they can activate deep-seated stereotypes about which racial groups belong and which do not. Even English-sounding first names did not erase the bias in the study.

For Asian, Arab, and Latino Americans applying to jobs that prize “American” traits, the barrier may not be about being seen as less competent. It may be about being seen as less American.

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Disclaimer: This article is based on peer-reviewed research. Study findings reflect controlled experimental conditions and observational data and may not capture the full range of real-world hiring practices. Results should be interpreted in the context of the study’s limitations.

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