Research on online job ad delivery show delivery outcomes in the EU skew along gender and age stereotypical lines despite directives prohibiting explicit targeting of these groups (Dalenberg, 2018; Speicher et al., 2018). Studies suggest ad content as a driver of this disproportionate ad delivery (Ali et al., 2019; Sapiezynski et al., 2022), yet limited research examines the influence of latent textual and contextual factors. The current paper addresses this gap and investigates the influence of stereotypical frames in job ads on reach to different gender and age groups across 22 European countries. Moreover, it examines the moderating role of country-level individualism and egalitarianism norms to explore contextual differences. Using automated content analysis and on-platform reach metrics, results show warmth-framed job ads reach more female and younger users, whereas competence-framed job ads reach more male and older users. Individualism reverses these effects while gender egalitarianism exacerbates them. Economic egalitarianism also exacerbates the main effects for gender groups but reverses them for age groups.
Noon, M. F. A., Kroon, A. C., van der Goot, M. J., Vliegenthart, R., & van Selm, M. (2026). Bias in automated job advertisement delivery: The effect of stereotypical gender and age framing across European countries. Manuscript in preparation.