The goal of forming accurate impressions during social interactions: Attenuating the impact of negative expectancies.

Investigated the idea that impression formation goals may regulate the impact that perceiver expectancies have on social interactions. In simulated interviews, interviewer Ss were given a negative expectancy about one applicant S and no expectancy about another. Half the interviewers were encouraged to form accurate impressions; the others were not. As predicted, no-goal interviewers exhibited a postinteraction impression bias against the negative-expectancy applicants, whereas the accuracy-goal interviewers did not. Moreover, the ability of the accuracy goal to reduce this bias was apparently mediated by more extensive and less biased interviewer information-gathering, which in turn elicited an improvement in negative-expectancy applicants' performances. These findings stress the theoretical and practical importance of considering the motivational context within which expectancy-tinged social interactions occur. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of interviewer-interviewee similarity on interviewer objectivity in college admissions interviews.

Examined the effects of interviewer-interviewee similarity on college admissions officers' liking for and bias toward applicants. Data were analyzed separately for 3 officers to test the degree to which the effects of interviewer-interviewee similarity were consistent across different interviewers. Results show that for 1 interviewer there was no relationship between interviewer-interviewee similarity and either liking for or bias toward applicants; for another the relationships were low positive; and for a 3rd there were strong positive relationships between similarity and interviewer favorableness toward applicants. Results call into question the generality of the proposition that similarity between interviewers and interviewees leads to favorable interviewer judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confirming first impressions in the employment interview: A field study of interviewer behavior.

Examined behavioral styles used by interviewers to confirm their 1st impressions of job applicants. Three interviewers in a corporate setting formed 1st impressions based on application blank and test score information. They then conducted audiotaped interviews. Coders independently coded 79 interviews and found that 1st impressions were related to confirmatory behavior. Interviewers followed up positive 1st impressions, for example, by showing positive regard toward applicants, "selling" the company and giving job information, and gathering less information. Applicants' communication style and rapport with interviewers also differed. Significant differences in confirmatory behaviors also occurred among the 3 interviewers. A number of interviewer behaviors, especially positive regard, were related to applicant behavior in interviews. Although previous studies of expectancy confirmation have produced mixed results, the present results suggest that interviewers in natural settings do use confirmatory strategies, underscoring the importance of additional research on "self-fulfilling prophecies." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A standardized interviewing technique for evaluating postgraduate training applicants

In an effort to streamline the personal interview and to reduce the influence of subjectivity inpreparation of ranking lists for postgraduate year-one applicants, a standardized interview was constructed for use in evaluating condidates for admission to a training program in internal medicine. The interview was conducted in a uniformly structured manner by 14 interviewers of 260 applicants. Each applicant received an interview score which correlated well with the final decision of the Intern Selection Committee. For each interviewer various measures of performance were obtained which allowed a classification into "hard" versus "easy" interviewer and indicated the comparability of each interview's evaluations with the final decisions. Thus, the standardized interview resulted in quantifiable data in the form of uniform evaluations of applicants and interviewers.     

Target complicity in the confirmation and disconfirmation of erroneous perceiver expectations: immediate and longer-term implications

The authors explored the role of target self-presentational goals in the expectation confirmation process within the context of simulated employment interviews. As predicted, applicants encouraged to be deferential inadvertently succumbed to their interviewers' expectation; applicants encouraged to be challenging, to advance their own agenda, did not. The challenging-motivated applicants succeeded in disconfirming negative expectations by presenting favorable information about themselves even in the face of negatively constraining interviewer questions; other theoretically relevant behaviors were not supported as mediators. Of added interest, the self-fulfilling prophecies observed for the deference-motivated applicants carried over to a 2nd interview because of changes in applicant self-perceptions following the 1st interview.     

Interviewer use of positive and negative self-disclosure and interviewer-subject sex pairing.

Investigated the effect of interviewer use of positive or negative self-disclosure and interviewer-S sex pairing on Ss' perceptions of the interviewer and of their own behavior. 36 male and 36 female undergraduates served as Ss; 3 male and 3 female doctoral students served as interviewers. Results indicate that (a) interviewers who disclosed negative information about themselves were perceived as significantly more empathic, warm, and credible than interviewers who disclosed positive information about themselves; (b) Ss interviewed by a negatively disclosing interviewer perceived that they procrastinated significantly less after the interview than before, while the opposite was true for subjects in the positive disclosure condition; (c) Ss in both disclosure conditions were significantly more confident of their procrastination estimates after the interview; and (d) none of the effects due to interviewer-S sex pairing reached significance. The need for further studies investigating interviewer self-disclosure as both a means of generating a facilitative atmosphere and a counseling intervention to effect perceived or behavioral client change is noted. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational control in the employment interview.

This exploratory study compared communication behaviors and patterns in successful and unsuccessful initial recruiting interviews. Subjects were 28 university seniors interviewing for jobs with seven corporate recruiters who held interviews on campus. The interviews were videotaped and subsequently analyzed for applicant and interviewer behavior. Applicant behavior was significantly different when successful interviews were compared with unsuccessful ones. Unsuccessful interviews were approximately two-thirds as long as successful interviews. Successful applicants dominated the conversations more. When interviewers attempted to structure the conversation, unsuccessful applicants tried to structure the conversation in return. Successful applicants tended to be submissive when the interviewer dominated and to dominate when the interviewer was submissive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex and physical attractiveness of raters and applicants as determinants of resumé evaluations.

110 male and female student "interviewers," classified as either high, moderate, or low on physical attractiveness, evaluated 12 bogus job applicants for whom sex, physical attractiveness, and qualifications had been varied. A 2?×?3?×?2?×?3?×?2 analysis of variance was computed, with the 1st 2 variables (interviewer sex and attractiveness) constituting between-group factors, and the last 3 variables (applicant sex, attractiveness, and qualifications) constituting repeated measures factors. Regardless of interviewer sex and attractiveness, highly qualified applicants were preferred over poorly qualified applicants, male applicants were preferred over female applicants, and attractive candidates were preferred over unattractive candidates. Discrimination in employment decisions was attributed to sex-role and physical attractiveness stereotypes. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A battle of wills: Self-verification versus behavioral confirmation.

Investigated whose viewpoint triumphs when a perceiver forms an expectancy about a target individual that is discrepant with that target's self-conception. Although research on behavioral confirmation argues that perceivers will "win" by causing targets to confirm the expectancy, research on self-verification argues that targets will win by bringing perceivers to treat them in a manner that confirms their self-conceptions. In the present study with 128 undergraduate women, perceivers first formed relatively certain or uncertain expectancies about targets that were inconsistent with targets' self-conceptions. They then interacted with targets, who possessed relatively certain or uncertain self-conceptions, in a series of 3 successive interview sessions. Analyses of the behavior of targets indicated that self-verification always occurred when targets were certain of their self-conceptions. Self-verification also tended to occur when both perceivers and targets were uncertain of their beliefs. Behavioral confirmation tended to occur only when perceivers were certain of their expectancies and targets were uncertain of their self-conceptions. At the end of the experiment, perceivers had generally abandoned their expectancies, but targets revealed no self-rating change. (67 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bales' interaction process analysis of personnel selection interviews.

What are the sources of interview unreliability? This is the 2nd of a series of 3 studies of the interview. 276 interviews were used. "Samples of interview conversation (personnel selection interviews) were analyzed according to Bales' interaction process analysis. Scores obtained were correlated with decisions made by interviewers about whether applicants were recommended for acceptance or rejection… . specific interaction score variance accounts for interviewer error to a significant degree." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Policy capturing in the employment interview.

Employed an information-processing perspective to analyze the judgments of individual employment interviewers in a corporate setting. Linear policy-capturing equations were estimated from 3 interviewers' ratings of 120 job applicants in live and audiotaped interviews. The equations were evaluated across interviewers to identify sources of predictive validity and consistency in information use. In competition with the interviewers from whom they were derived, regression models displayed higher predictive validities in a majority of instances. Following training on selected rating dimensions, interviewers' predictive validities improved. After interviewer training, the regression models of the training dimensions yielded higher predictive validities than all 3 interviewers. Results suggest specific directions for enhancing the effectiveness of interviewing in the employee-selection process. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two experiments showing the effect of the interviewer's racial background on responses to questionnaires concerning racial issues.

4 interviewers, 2 Caucasian, 1 Negro and 1 Oriental, asked questions in interviews with householders and college-campus passersby. In 1 experiment, 50 respondents were questioned by each of 2 interviewers; in the other, each of 2 interviewers questioned 25 freshmen, 25 seniors, and 25 house-owners. "Both the Oriental and Negro interviewers found that people were sensitive to their racial origin… . [Respondents] scaled down their expressions to avoid embarrassing the interviewer of the minority race and to protect the 'conversational bridge.' " (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of actual deception and suspiciousness of deception on interpersonal perceptions.

36 undergraduate "interviewers" each interviewed an introverted and an extraverted "applicant," as assessed by the Eysenck Personality Inventory. One of the applicants acted honestly, the other dishonestly (i.e., extraverts presented themselves as introverts and introverts presented themselves as extraverts). Interviewers were either naive or primed to expect the possibility that deception might be occurring. Primed interviewers were not more accurate than naive interviewers in detecting deception or in discerning applicants' true dispositions. However, the primed interviewers were less confident about their judgments, and they tended to perceive all applicants as more deceptive than did the naive interviewers. Applicants who were interviewed by primed interviewers felt somewhat less successful in their attempts to portray their intended impressions (even though they really were not less successful), and they perceived their interviewers as more manipulative. In the dishonest interviews, the correspondence between the applicants' and the interviewers' perceptions of the interview, and of each other, was significantly lower than in the honest interviews. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do noncontingent interview mm-hmms facilitate interviewee productivity?

Two studies investigated the hypothesis that noncontingent interviewer "mmhmms" facilitate interviewee verbal productivity. In Study 1, 1 male interviewer interviewed 48 female undergraduates. In Study 2, 3 male interviewers interviewed 24 male undergraduates, and 3 female interviewers interviewed 24 female undergraduates. Within- and between-S comparisons did not support the hypothesis, although interviewees' ratings indicated that the mm-hmms were perceived as the social reinforcers they were intended to be. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of interviewer self-disclosure and interviewer-subject sex pairing on perceived and actual subject behavior.

The content (positive or negative) of interviewer self-disclosure regarding their own procrastination and study behavior as undergraduates was manipulated with all additional parameters of self-disclosure controlled. 16 male and 16 female college students discussed their tendency to procrastinate with either male or female interviewers who positively or negatively self-disclosed. Results indicate that (a) after the interview, Ss in the positive disclosure condition expected to study significantly more hours and did study significantly more hours than Ss in the negative disclosure condition; (b) Ss in the positive disclosure condition perceived that they procrastinated significantly more after the interview than before, while the opposite was true for Ss in the negative disclosure condition; and (c) negatively disclosing interviewers were perceived as significantly higher on unconditionality of regard and credibility than positively disclosing interviewers. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interviewer consistency in the use of empathic models in personnel selection.

Personnel selection interviewers predicted the responses of applicants to 2 paper and pencil tests. Comparisons were made between these predictions and the responses of applicants (accuracy score), predictions and the responses of interviewers (similarity score). (These scores were referred to collectively as empathy scores.) Statistical analysis of empathy scores and their components indicated marked inter-interviewer inconsistency, which was interpreted to mean that interviewers tend to make errors by resorting to empathy as a basis of decision making. Explicit, actuarial bases of decision making in interviewing are advocated. Results of a follow-up study supported this interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model of hiring decisions in real employment interviews.

Past research on variables affecting hiring decisions has emphasized the role of applicant and interviewer demographics. However, recent studies have questioned the generalizability of findings from laboratory interviews to real interviews. In this article, a model of demographics and interviewing decisions is proposed and tested with actual employment interviews. Industrial interviewers (N?=?8) provided demographic data concerning themselves and applicants (N?=?71), rated applicants on widely studied attributes, and made two hiring decisions. The data support the model that interview outcomes are directly dependent on the more logically relevant variables, such as skill. Furthermore, the influence of demographics is modest and less important than other variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)