LIFESTYLE CHARACTERISTICS AND EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION: I HAVE GOT MINE WHILE YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN

Stephen C. Jones
Tracy L. Cole
Daniel T. Warwick
Arkansas Tech University

ABSTRACT

While employees are legally protected against discrimination based on race, color,
religion, sex, national origin, and disability in the United States, employees in many jurisdictions
have no protection against “lifestyle discrimination” based on characteristics or activities such as
smoking, gambling, or social media usage. Changing legal and social norms, such as attitudes
toward gender identity and legalization of marijuana, are affecting corporate policies regarding
their employees’ lifestyles. This study explores the attitudes of college students toward lifestyle
discrimination, focusing on the possible impact of an individual’s own perceived negative lifestyle
characteristics on his or her tolerance for such discrimination by employers. Since such
discrimination could work against them, people with more perceived negative lifestyle
characteristics might be expected to be less accepting of lifestyle discrimination than their
counterparts with fewer negative lifestyle characteristics; this study found the opposite result. This
study discusses some theories of psychology that might explain certain employees’ seemingly
incongruent acceptance of lifestyle discrimination and identifies subjects of future research.

Keywords: Employees, discrimination, lifestyle discrimination, fewer negative characteristics, higher negative
characteristics