Mental health stigma is still alive and well on LinkedIn—especially among hiring managers

While mental health may be top-of-mind for most employees when looking for jobs, a new study shows that broadcasting this priority on social media could be a turnoff for hiring managers.

After noticing an uptick in social media posts about personal experiences with depression and anxiety, researchers at North Carolina State University conducted a study to evaluate hiring managers’ responses to the posts. They found that regardless of an applicant’s age or gender, these posts impacted hiring managers’ impressions of the potential employee’s emotional stability and conscientiousness.

While the posts didn’t impact their expectations about the candidate’s future work performance, the study’s results do show that revealing more personal information on LinkedIn could have adverse effects.

The researchers enlisted 405 hiring professionals and documented their reactions to job candidates. Around 25% of the study participants were shown the LinkedIn page of a job candidate that featured no mention of mental health. Another 25% were shown the same profile, but with a post referencing the candidate’s experiences with anxiety and depression. Yet another 25% saw the profile and heard an audio interview with the candidate. And the final 25% were shown the candidate’s profile with the post about anxiety and depression, and also heard the audio interview.

“We found that study participants who saw the LinkedIn post about mental health challenges viewed the job candidate as being less emotionally stable and less conscientious,” Jenna McChesney, the first author of the study, said in a release. “Hearing the interview lessened a study participant’s questions about the candidate’s emotional stability, but only slightly. And hearing the interview did not affect the views of participants about the job candidate’s conscientiousness. In other words, the perceptions evaluators had after seeing the LinkedIn profile largely persisted throughout the interview.”

 

While the researchers noted that they think it’s important to reduce the stigma attached to mental health, the study’s results showcased a wariness from hiring managers when it comes to reading about personal struggles with mental health on a public platform.

“Our findings don’t mean people should refrain from posting about anxiety and depression on LinkedIn,” McChesney said. “However, people who are considering posting about these issues should be aware that doing so could change future employers’ perceptions of them.”

The researchers who conducted the study were not immediately available for comment.