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Approved Posture's avatar

Imagine you have to hire a childcare worker. You can’t interview candidates and all you know is the candidate’s sex. You have one male and one female applicant. You will inevitably pick the female.

Repeat the game where all you know is age. You have an entry-level position in an IT firm and one application from a 25 year old and another from a 55 year old. You will inevitably pick the 25 year old.

In the real world there are lots of other factors about the candidates that might make you hire the male for the childcare position and the 55-year-old for the entry-level position in the IT firm. But these candidates will have to help you to overcome your logical suspicions about their ability based on their demographic characteristics.

I made a big career move just after the age of 40 several years ago for a few reasons. One of the major reasons was that very soon I was going to be too old to be considered a credible candidate as an external hire no matter what my experience was.

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Daniel's avatar

Is there a common form of discrimination that is never or rarely rational? Probably not. That's why there are laws and rules against it.

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