The Impact of Response Distortion on Preemployment Personality Testing and Hiring Decisions

Response distortion (RD), or faking, among job applicants completing personality inventories has been a concern for selection specialists. In a field study using the NEO Personality Inventory, Revised, the authors show that RD is significantly greater among job applicants than among job incumbents,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied psychology 1998-08, Vol.83 (4), p.634-644
Main Authors: Rosse, Joseph G, Stecher, Mary D, Miller, Janice L, Levin, Robert A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applicants
Biological and medical sciences
Colorado
Deceit
Employee testing
Factors
Faking
Female
Field study
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hiring
Human
Job Applicant Screening
Job applicants
Job seekers
Lying
Male
Misrepresentation
Occupational psychology
Orientation. Selection. Evaluation
Personality
Personality Measures
Personality tests
Personnel Selection
Preemployment screening
Psychological tests
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometrics
Recruitment
Responses
Selection
Statistical analysis
Studies
Citations: Items that cite this one
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Description
Summary:Response distortion (RD), or faking, among job applicants completing personality inventories has been a concern for selection specialists. In a field study using the NEO Personality Inventory, Revised, the authors show that RD is significantly greater among job applicants than among job incumbents, that there are significant individual differences in RD, and that RD among job applicants can have a significant effect on who is hired. These results are discussed in the context of recent studies suggesting that RD has little effect on the predictive validity of personality inventories. The authors conclude that future research, rather than focusing on predictive validity, should focus instead on the effect of RD on construct validity and hiring decisions.
ISSN:0021-9010
1939-1854
DOI:10.1037/0021-9010.83.4.634