Validity of Resumé Reviewers' Inferences Concerning Applicant Personality Based on Resumé Evaluation

Recruiters infer personal traits from job applicants' resumés and use these inferences in evaluating job applicants' employability. No research to date, however, has determined if resumé reviewers' inferences of applicants' personality drawn solely from resumé biographical data are valid. In the present study, resumé reviewers (N=52) examined one of two applicant resumés and then described the applicant's personality based on the Big 5 taxonomy. Validities of reviewers' inferences concerning applicant personality were assessed by correlating resumé reviewers' judgments with applicants' self‐reported Big 5 personality scores. Results suggested that valid personality inferences are possible based solely on resumé evaluation. We also found evidence suggesting that attending a brief training session may enhance reviewers' accuracy when inferring applicants' personality from resumé information.     

Further validation of the MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF Response Bias Scale: findings from disability and criminal forensic settings

The present study extends the validation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) Response Bias Scale (RBS; R. O. Gervais, Y. S. Ben-Porath, D. B. Wygant, & P. Green, 2007) in separate forensic samples composed of disability claimants and criminal defendants. Using cognitive symptom validity tests as response bias indicators, the RBS exhibited large effect sizes (Cohen's ds = 1.24 and 1.48) in detecting cognitive response bias in the disability and criminal forensic samples, respectively. The scale also added incremental prediction to the traditional MMPI-2 and the MMPI-2-RF overreporting validity scales in the disability sample and exhibited excellent specificity with acceptable sensitivity at cutoffs ranging from 90T to 120T. The results of this study indicate that the RBS can add uniquely to the existing MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF validity scales in detecting symptom exaggeration associated with cognitive response bias.     

Disconfirmation and dual hypotheses on a more difficult version of wason's 2-4-6 task

This paper reports two experiments in which subjects worked to solve a more difficult version of Wason's 2-4-6 task: instead of the usual “numbers must ascend in order of magnitude” rule, a more general rule, “the three numbers must be different”, was used. The first experiment established that instructing subjects to disconfirm on the “three different numbers” did not significantly improve their performance, as compared with confirmatory and control groups. Disconfirmatory subjects did try to propose more triples at variance with their hypotheses but were unable to obtain the necessary disconfirmatory information.

To help subjects represent the task in a way that facilitated disconfirmation, the second experiment utilized a procedure in which subjects were told that they were looking for two rules, Dax and Med-the Dax rule corresponding to “three different numbers” and the Med rule to its complement, i.e. two or more numbers the same. Of subjects in the Dax-Med condition, 88% solve the rule, as opposed to 21% of subjects in a control condition. Dax-Med subjects tended to search for positive instances of the Med rule, which, in turn, forced them to test the limits of the Dax rule. It was concluded that the Dax-Med manipulation did facilitate a different mental representation of the task than the normal procedure.     

Chronic stress accelerates atherosclerosis in the apolipoprotein E deficient mouse

Conventional cardiovascular risk factors such as cholesterol and blood pressure do not account fully for variation in coronary heart disease suggesting the involvement of additional mechanisms. We have examined the effects of a chronic psychological stress protocol on the development of atherosclerosis in the apolipoprotein E knockout mouse. We observed a 3-fold increase in staining for atheroma accompanied by a 10-fold increase in corticosterone concentrations in mice stressed for 12 weeks. These data suggest that chronic mild stress can induce or accelerate the development of atherosclerosis.     

Connectionist simulation of attitude learning: asymmetries in the acquisition of positive and negative evaluations

Connectionist computer simulation was employed to explore the notion that, if attitudes guide approach and avoidance behaviors, false negative beliefs are likely to remain uncorrected for longer than false positive beliefs. In Study 1, the authors trained a three-layer neural network to discriminate "good" and "bad" inputs distributed across a two-dimensional space. "Full feedback" training, whereby connection weights were modified to reduce error after every trial, resulted in perfect discrimination. "Contingent feedback," whereby connection weights were only updated following outputs representing approach behavior, led to several false negative errors (good inputs misclassified as bad). In Study 2, the network was redesigned to distinguish a system for learning evaluations from a mechanism for selecting actions. Biasing action selection toward approach eliminated the asymmetry between learning of good and bad inputs under contingent feedback. Implications for various attitudinal phenomena and biases in social cognition are discussed.     

Interview etiquette and hiring outcomes

Despite the presumed importance of interview etiquette, research examining its relationship with hiring outcomes has been relatively limited. As a step toward validating its importance, two studies were conducted to assess the influence of interview etiquette on hiring outcomes relative to other predictors. In the first study, the impact of interview etiquette was demonstrated to be similar to that of interview answer quality in influencing recruiters’ perceptions of employment suitability. Moreover, a significant interaction was found, whereby interview etiquette mattered more when interview answer quality was also high. In the second study, interview etiquette was demonstrated to explain incremental variance in job offers beyond other impression management strategies (i.e., ingratiation and self-promotion) and biographical data (i.e., work experience, academic achievement, and extracurricular involvement). Overall, these findings provide evidence that interview etiquette bears a significant relationship with hiring outcomes, signaling its value beyond other credentials and impression management tactics.