Disclosure of a depressive episode during a job interview. The impact on perceivers’ cognitive, emotional and behavioural reactions.

Earlier research provides evidence for the existence of stigmatization in important life domains of psychiatric patients. The present study is a scenario study which investigates the role of earlier depressive complaints in job applications. The impact of seriousness of complaints is also investigated. Economy and business administration students (N = 180) were given a scenario. The scenario provided a detailed description of an application procedure. A 33-year old woman applied for the job. She perfectly matches the requirements of the job but she has a career gap in her resume. The reason for this career gap (depression, car-accident or no information) and the seriousness of the complaints (low seriousness vs. high seriousness) were manipulated. Differences in perceivers’ cognitive, emotional and behavioural reactions towards the applicant were measured. Results showed that disclosure of earlier depressive complaints during a job interview has a negative influence on the chance that the perceiver will hire the applicant and on the personal assessment of the applicant. More negative personal characteristics were attributed towards the depressive applicant compared to the applicants in the other two conditions. Implications of the results and recommendations for future research are discussed.