Diana Roxana Galos, Joris Frese,
Online social class cues and employability: Experimental evidence from Germany,
Social Science Research,Volume 133, 2026, 103258, ISSN 0049-089X,

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103258 (e-published ahead of print)

The study reveals no overall impact when comparing activities associated with higher versus. lower social-classes. However, when hobbies suggest class distinctions without being clearly tied to professional qualifications, candidates from higher social classes tend to be preferred.
Respondents also show more favorable attitudes toward profiles aligned with upper-class interests, especially when those interests are perceived to reflect positive workplace attributes.

These findings underscore how subtle indicators of social class in online profiles can shape perceptions—and may potentially contribute to biased hiring decisions.

Abstract

Social media platforms, such as Twitter or Instagram, offer easily accessible information – relevant or not – for employers when evaluating candidates for a position. In particular, they tend to be sources of information about individuals’ interests and leisure activities. Because interests are highly stratified by social class (e.g., engagement in highbrow and lowbrow activities), this represents a new way for class to potentially manifest itself in the hiring process. To study discrimination in hiring based on online social class cues, we conducted a pre-registered survey experiment in Germany with samples of employers and non-employers, manipulating job applicants’ class cues on social media (highbrow versus lowbrow). Overall, we found no difference in preferences for the candidates displaying highbrow and lowbrow activities on their social media profiles. However, this masks important differences in the specific activities proxying for class. When these activities have no relevance for the jobs in question, higher-class candidates are preferred. Exploratory analyses show that respondents are more likely to express positive sentiments toward the higher-class profiles, with highbrow activities being positively associated with work-related traits. Our findings highlight the need to consider how digital environments and, more specifically, online social class cues, may contribute to class bias in hiring.

The study is a follow up on an earlier study by Diana Galos in European Sociological Review entitled "Social media and hiring: a survey experiment on discrimination based on online social class cues"

You find the study here: European Sociological Review, Volume 40, Issue 1, February 2024, Pages 116–128, https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcad012