The Employment Interview: The Role of Sex Stereotypes in the Evaluation of Male and Female Job Applicants in the Netherlands1

This field study focused on the influence of sex stereotypes in the evaluation of male (N=38) and female (N=21) job applicants in the Netherlands. The employee selection process for higher-level technical and academic jobs in real life situations was studied, with special attention to the assessment of applicants by members of selection committees. It was demonstrated that, according to the job interviewers, the ideal applicant had more masculine than feminine traits. Males and females were regarded as having the same qualifications for the job, but because male applicants were assessed as having more masculine characteristics and female applicants more feminine characteristics, the male applicants were accepted more often. The job interviewers acted according to a fit model: The applicant most similar in traits to the ideal applicant was hired for each job.     

The Role of Applicant Nonverbal Communication in the Employment Interview

This research examined the effects that the nonverbal behavior of job applicants had on subsequent hiring evaluations. Interviewees (n = 32) were instructed to use one of four styles of nonverbal behavior during the recording of short job interviews with a standard content. The videotaped interviews were watched by behavior raters (n = 22), who assessed nonverbal-cue usage, and by judges (n = 50), who evaluated the applicants as prospective employees. The applicants were also rated by judges (n = 30) for physical attractiveness. Results supported the hypothesis that nonverbal behavior in the job interview operates as subtle reinforcement. Implications for job-counseling programs are discussed.     

Black-White Differences in Nonverbal Behavior in an Interview Setting

The majority of systematic research on nonverbal behavior has used white college students as subjects. The present investigation examined both white and black subjects'nonverbal behavior and also independently varied the race of the person with whom the subject interacted. The experimental setting was an actual employment interview. Twenty black and 20 white female undergraduates were individually interviewed by either a black or white male interviewer. White subjects tended to maintain more visual interaction with interviewers of both races than did black subjects. Moreover, black interviewers were visually interacted with less, and given shorter glances. Racial, in contrast to nonracial, questions elicited longer glances; and subjects hesitated longer before answering them.     

The Effects of the Structured Interview on Reducing Biases Against Pregnant Job Applicants

Some research has been conducted on the discrimination faced by pregnant women in the workplace. Few studies, however, have specifically investigated how this bias is manifested in employment or hiring decisions. The current study was designed to examine possible bias during structured interviews. Participants watched a videotaped scenario in which candidates were interviewed for a job. The 2 × 2 × 2 experimental conditions were varied to represent a structured or an unstructured interview, a pregnant or nonpregnant interviewee, and the open position of either a high school teacher or sales representative. Results indicate an overall bias against pregnant women and suggested that the structured interview reduces this bias.     

Getting the Job: Attributional Retraining and the Employment Interview1

This study examined the effectiveness of attributional retraining (AR) in an employment interview setting. Our sample consisted of 50 co‐operative education students completing job interviews who were randomly assigned to a control or writing‐based AR condition. Dependent measures included attributions, expectations, and affect, as well as behavior with respect to an interview skills workshop, and actual employment outcomes. Results showed AR to promote controllable failure attributions, expectations, motivated behavior, and interview success, particularly among participants with maladaptive baseline attributions. Findings further revealed AR effects on emotions mediated by post‐treatment attributions. Implications for attribution theory and research on AR in employment settings are discussed.     

ABCs of the Interview: The Role of Affective,Behavioral, and Cognitive Responses by Applicants in the Employment Interview

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of a job applicant's verbal statements on interviewer ratings of an applicant's interpersonal characteristics. Applicant verbal statements were coded as containing affective, behavioral, and cognitive components. Verbal statements were analyzed using regression analysis and findings indicated that behavioral and cognitive speech components significantly impacted interviewer ratings of an applicant's self-confidence. In turn, interpersonal characteristics of enthusiasm, self-confidence and effectiveness had a significant influence on an interviewer's rating of an applicant's overall quality and the ultimate hiring decision.     

The Effect of Job Level and Amount of Information on the Evaluation of Male and Female Job Applicants

The addition of job-related information regarding an applicant's leadership ability reduced bias against female applicants applying for a managerial position.     

Measuring Job Interview Anxiety: Beyond Weak Knees and Sweaty Palms

A multidimensional measure of interview anxiety, called the Measure of Anxiety in Selection Interviews (MASI), was developed using a student sample  ( N = 212)  and tested using a sample of job applicants in a field setting  ( N = 276)  . The MASI goes beyond the measurement of "weak knees" and "sweaty palms" by providing an assessment of 5 interview anxiety dimensions: Communication, Appearance, Social, Performance, and Behavioral. The psychometric properties of the scales were strong and confirmatory factor analyses supported the a priori structure. In addition, substantial evidence for the concurrent, discriminant, criterion-related, and incremental validity of the MASI was obtained. Moreover, a multiple correlation of .34 was found for the 5 MASI scales in the prediction of interview performance. The development of the MASI has important implications for the field, as it may provide the foundation for future research on job interview anxiety, guide interview anxiety treatment programs, and promote the enhancement of job interview validity.     

Age Discrimination in the Evaluation of Job Applicants

This study investigated the nature of age discrimination against older job applicants. One hundred fifty‐six participants (102 students; 54 organization based) evaluated a hypothetical job applicant's (aged 33–66 years) work‐related competences and likelihood of being hired. Applicant age affected hiring decisions for both samples where there was a preference for hiring applicants aged 42–48 years. Applicants at both the older and younger ends of the continuum were less likely to be hired, with the oldest applicants (over 54 years) being the least likely to be hired. Although the applicants' age negatively affected evaluations of their trainability and sociability, the effect of applicant age on hiring evaluations was not mediated by these work‐related competencies, suggesting that age discrimination occurs via direct bias against older workers.     

Teaching Job Interview Skills to Alcoholics: Implications for Future Employment Rates

Twenty-three inpatient alcoholics participated in a job-finding skills workshop. They demonstrated better job interview skills and a higher employment rate compared with a control group.     

The Importance of Written,Verbal, and Nonverbal Communication Factors in Employment Interview Decisions

This study explored dimensions of influential factors in employment interviewing from the recruiter's (N = 423) perspective in hiring new college graduates for an entry-level position. A factor analysis of 28 communication items was conducted. Study results suggest that there are six dimensions of influential communication factors in employment interviews.     

Effects of Nonverbal Behavior on Perceptions of a Female Employee's Power Bases

Abstract

The authors extended a previous examination of the effects of nonverbal behavior on perceptions of a male employee's power bases (H. Aguinis, M. M. Simonsen, & C. A. Pierce, 1998) by examining the effects of nonverbal behavior on perceptions of a female employee's power bases. U.S. undergraduates read vignettes describing a female employee engaging in 3 types of nonverbal behavior (i.e., eye contact, facial expression, body posture) and rated their perceptions of the woman's power bases (i.e., reward, coercive, legitimate, referent, expert, credibility). As predicted, (a) direct eye contact increased perceptions of coercive power, and (b) a relaxed facial expression decreased perceptions of all 6 power bases. Also as predicted, the present results differed markedly from those of Aguinis et al. (1998) regarding a male employee. The authors discuss implications for theory, future research, and the advancement of female employees.     

The Influence of Social (Mis)Information on Memory for Behavior in an Employment Interview

We examined the impact of misinformation on memory for behavioral information in a social decision making context. In the initial study, 70 subjects viewed an 18-minute simulated employment interview, evaluated the interviewee, and then provided group ratings using their own evaluations and two other evaluations containing misinformation (misled group) or no misinformation (control group). The results of this study revealed that misled subjects were quite accepting of the misinformation, and were highly confident that the misinformation was true. In a supplemental experimental condition, a separate group of 23 subjects was given the same misinformation as the misled group. However, this group was alerted to the fact that they had received some misinformation, prior to completing a recognition memory test. This misled-informed group exhibited the same degree of accuracy as the control group, suggesting that the misinformation effects observed for the original misled group were due to social influence, rather than memory interference or source-attribution errors.     

A Linguistic Comparison of Letters of Recommendation for Male and Female Chemistry and Biochemistry Job Applicants

Letters of recommendation are central to the hiring process. However, gender stereotypes could bias how recommenders describe female compared to male applicants. In the current study, text analysis software was used to examine 886 letters of recommendation written on behalf of 235 male and 42 female applicants for either a chemistry or biochemistry faculty position at a large U.S. research university. Results revealed more similarities than differences in letters written for male and female candidates. However, recommenders used significantly more standout adjectives to describe male as compared to female candidates. Letters containing more standout words also included more ability words and fewer grindstone words. Research is needed to explore how differences in language use affect perceivers’ evaluations of female candidates. This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant #1R01MH071749 to the first author and a University of Arizona grant from the College of Science Millennium Report Oversight Committee awarded to the third author.     

The Effect of Name on Pre‐Interview Impressions and Occupational Stereotypes: The Case of Black Sales Job Applicants

Name is an important, yet under‐researched racial cue that can affect evaluators' opinions, attitudes, and beliefs about minority job applicants. This study examined a two‐way ANOVA interaction between name and sales job type on White sales professionals' pre‐interview impressions of Black applicants. Results indicated a significant interaction between applicant name and sales job type on pre‐interview impressions. For outside sales jobs, Anglicized‐named applicants received more favorable pre‐interview impressions than did ethnic‐named applicants. In addition, pre‐interview impressions of Anglicized‐named applicants were more favorable for outside versus inside sales jobs. Findings, implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.     

Effects of Eye Contact on the Evaluation of Job Applicants

This experiment attempted to determine if eye contact affects job interviewers' evaluations of applicants. Photographs were taken of a male and a female in two eye positions: looking straight into the camera and looking downward. Forty-four job interviewers in an employment agency were randomly assigned to one of the four photographs. Each subject was told to assume that he or she was interviewing the stimulus person for a job as a management trainee and was instructed to rate the stimulus person on a series of scales. The findings supported the hypothesis that eye contact is a determinant of the decision to hire. The findings also suggested that the effects of eye contact are mediated by the perceived attributes of applicants; that is, eye contact affected the interviewers' evaluations of the applicants, and those evaluations were related to the decision to hire.     

Comparison of the MMPI and MMPI-2 Among Job Applicants

The primary objective was to compare the MMPI-2 profiles for professional job applicants with corresponding profiles on the original MMPI. Male and female MMPI-2 profiles were also compared, and correlational and factor analyses were used to examine: A) Interscale correlations vis-à-vis item overlap, and B) The impact of K-corrections. The subjects were 82 auditor applicants, plus 212 sales and management applicants from an earlier study. The original MMPI was found to overpathologize applicant profiles. Male and female MMPI-2 profiles differed only on Mf. Scales L, K, and Hy formed a favorable cluster for job applicants, while F, Hs, Pt, Sc formed one unfavorable cluster—and D, Si a second. K-corrections consistently moved clinical scales in the direction of the favorable cluster.     

The Influence of Videoconference Technology and Interview Structure on the Recruiting Function of the Employment Interview: A Field Experiment

This field experiment examined whether interview medium and interview structure affects the attractiveness of organizations, interviewer friendliness and performance. Attractiveness ratings of 25 organizations were provided by 92 real job applicants, assigned to either a face–to–face (FTF) or a videoconference (VC) interview. An interview medium X structure interaction showed FTF applicants were attracted most to organizations who conducted their interviews with less structure, while VC applicants were more attracted to organizations using structured interviews. Interview structure had no effect on applicants’ perception of the interviewer’s performance; however, interviewers’ performance was rated higher for FTF than VC interviews. Applicants were more satisfied with their FTF performance in less structured interviews and more satisfied with their VC performance in highly structured interviews.     

Interviewer's Moods and Reactions to Job Applicants: The Influence of Affective States on Applied Social Judgments1

Male and female subjects interviewed a same-sex applicant for an entry-level management position. In reality, this person was an accomplice who presented a carefully standardized pattern of positive and negative information. Prior to the interview, participants were exposed to treatments designed to place them in a positive, neutral, or negative mood. Results indicated that subjects’ moods influenced their reactions to the applicant. They rated this individual higher on job-related and personal dimensions and made more favorable employment decisions about him or her when in a positive than negative mood. In addition, participants recalled more information presented by the applicant that was consistent with their current mood than information that was inconsistent with these feelings. Implications of these findings for the development of closer conceptual links between (a) basic knowledge about social cognition and (b) practical issues relating to the conduction of fair employment interviews are discussed.