On Faking...

The issue of job candidates attempting to present themselves in a favorable light has long been of concern to those working in the area of personnel selection. The issue is quite complex from both a theoretical and practical perspective.

For example, a recent study in Human Performance looked at the efficacy of warning applicants about faking on a personality inventory. 464 participants completed personality instruments in either a “warned” or “unwarned” condition. While subjects in the warned condition had lower mean scores on some scales, it did not increase the convergent validity between self and other ratings.

In thinking about job candidates “faking good,” it is also important to remember that job seekers will may attempt to present themselves favorably in selection tasks beyond psychometric assessment. For example, Julia Levashina and Michael Campion have been exploring the role of faking in employment interviews. In a recent study, they report that over 90% of undergraduate job candidates admit to attempting to present themselves in a way that enhances their attractiveness to employers.

Another interesting finding is that follow-up questioning increases faking. They write:

We hypothesized the opposite effect by assuming that probing would be a response verification mechanism that would inhibit faking. Informal debriefing with participants revealed that follow-up questioning was perceived not as response verification but rather as a cue signaling what types of answers were important and critical.