People are literally scrubbing their resumes of 'green' buzzwords depending on who wins the White House.
March 20, 2026
Original Paper
Résumé Washing
SSRN · 6428260
The Takeaway
The study found that people treat their past work history as a flexible narrative, adding green values to their resumes the moment a potential employer announces a green initiative. Most surprisingly, these edits follow political cycles, with workers purging or adding 'values-based' language depending on whether Biden or Trump is in office to better signal alignment with the current power structure.
From the abstract
We examine whether workers strategically revise their descriptions of past job histories on résumés to signal alignment with employer preferences for ESG, a phenomenon we term résumé washing. We find that résumé revision behavior reflects both labor market incentives and workers' intrinsic identities. Workers in management roles are more likely to revise their résumés to signal alignment. Democrat-leaning workers are more likely to include ESG language than Republican-leaning workers. Résumé rev