What If Applicants Knew How Personality Tests are Scored? A Minimal Intervention Study

Abstract

Having access to information on personality tests might make faking of personality tests easier because applicants are not hindered by incorrect assumptions about the scoring. Thus, this experiment tests whether very briefly telling applicants how personality tests are scored affects faking. Management assistants (N = 187), asked to imagine themselves as job applicants, were either informed about the scoring key or given no information before filling out a Big Five personality test. Results revealed that this minimal manipulation increased faking. This finding supports the notion that applicants often incorrectly assume that scoring procedures are overly complex and gives practitioners additional reason to worry about more future faking.