Social Class Signals in Recruitment: Investigating When and Why Signal Relevance and Job's Customer Contact Requirement Shape Hiring Outcomes

ABSTRACT People may infer others' social class based on signals such as clothing, accents, university attended, or leisure activities. In recruitment and selection, such incidental social class signaling by candidates may occur, as information like this is often shared by candidates in application materials. Whether or how the visibility of candidates' social class information influences candidate evaluations, however, remains poorly understood. Building on signaling theory, we propose that social class level influence hiring decisions most when they contain job‐relevant content, particularly in roles that directly influence an organization's image to external stakeholders. We followed a three‐step, multi‐study approach: (1) developing stimulus materials in the form of interview response transcripts; (2) conducting two validation studies ( N = 100 and N = 108, respectively), and (3) conducting a pre‐registered online vignette main study ( N = 226). Results reveal that candidates with higher‐class signals were favored only when the class signals conveyed job‐relevant content. This class effect was most pronounced in roles that directly influence an organization's image, operationalized as high customer contact positions. Moreover, our findings show that perceptions of job fit, rather than cultural fit with the organization, drove these biased hiring evaluations. This study enhances our understanding of job‐level variations of social class bias in recruitment and underscores the importance of aligning job requirements closely with the role‐relevant core competencies to foster more equitable hiring practices.