Passion or Obligation: How Career Gap Explanations Shape Hiring Evaluations Through Motivation Inference

Career gaps are increasingly common, yet their effects on hiring evaluations depend on whether and how candidates explain them. Drawing on the dilution model (Zhang et al., 2007) and research on motivation inference, we propose that gap explanations shape hiring outcomes by directing evaluators' inferences about candidates' motivation toward the focal job. In a preregistered experiment (N = 298), participants evaluated fictitious candidates whose résumés included a career gap framed as the pursuit of an alternative passion, framed as resulting from family caregiving obligations, or left unexplained. Candidates whose passion gaps were explained were perceived as less motivated and less hireable than candidates whose gaps were left unexplained, with perceived motivation fully mediating the effect on hireability. In exploratory analyses, candidates whose obligation gaps were explained were perceived as more motivated than those whose gaps were left unexplained, although this did not translate into significantly higher hireability ratings. Perceived skill did not differ across conditions. These findings establish motivation inference as a central pathway through which career gap explanations shape hiring decisions, with implications for both job candidates and selection practices.