Too old to be a diversity hire. Choice bundling shown to increase gender-diverse hiring decisions fails to increase age diversity.

Past research has shown that people are more likely to make the decision to hire candidates whose gender would increase group diversity when making multiple hiring choices in a bundle (i.e., when selecting multiple team members simultaneously) compared to making choices in isolation (i.e., when selecting a single team member). However, it is unclear if this bundling effect extends to age diversity and the selection of older candidates, as older workers are often the target of socially-acceptable negative stereotypes and bias in recruitment, leaving them unemployed for longer than their younger counterparts. Across four preregistered experiments (total n = 2,624), we tested if the positive effect of bundling on group diversity for women extends to older workers. We find evidence of bias against older job candidates in hiring decisions and demonstrate that choice bundling fails to increase the selection of older candidates. We discuss the theoretical implications and need for greater understanding of age as a diversity characteristic to support the design of interventions that meet the challenges of an aging workforce.