Psychology

Take It But Don’t Fake It: Using Self-Awareness to Reduce Fabrications on Personality Tests

Presenter Information

Rebekah Hale, Butler University

Document Type

Oral Presentation

Location

Indianapolis, IN

Subject Area

Psychology

Start Date

11-4-2014 8:30 AM

End Date

11-4-2014 10:00 AM

Description

Applicants frequently fake responses on personality tests when applying for jobs (e.g., Tett, Freund, Christiansen, Fox, & Coaster, 2012). Faking on a personality test is changing one's answers to fabricate a personality with characteristics that management finds ideal (Martin, Bowen, & Hunt 2002). Faking is problematic because applicants appear better fit for the job compared to when they answer honestly (Martin, et al., 2002). The purpose of this study was to propose and test a method to decrease faking on personality tests. Participants took a cognitive and personality test online. In the lab, participants read a job description. Then participants in the control condition played a hand-held game while participants in the experimental condition filled out a biographical questionnaire. The questionnaire was made to increase participants' self-awareness (Duval, Duval & Neely, 1979). I hypothesized that if participants were made self-aware then their tendency to fabricate answers on a subsequent personality test as part of a job application would decrease. Results show significant (p < .05) levels of faking on measures that would tend to make a person a good fit for an accountant job (e.g., extraversion, agreeableness and prudence) but no evidence that increasing self-awareness reduced participants' tendency to fake.

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Apr 11th, 8:30 AM Apr 11th, 10:00 AM

Take It But Don’t Fake It: Using Self-Awareness to Reduce Fabrications on Personality Tests

Indianapolis, IN

Applicants frequently fake responses on personality tests when applying for jobs (e.g., Tett, Freund, Christiansen, Fox, & Coaster, 2012). Faking on a personality test is changing one's answers to fabricate a personality with characteristics that management finds ideal (Martin, Bowen, & Hunt 2002). Faking is problematic because applicants appear better fit for the job compared to when they answer honestly (Martin, et al., 2002). The purpose of this study was to propose and test a method to decrease faking on personality tests. Participants took a cognitive and personality test online. In the lab, participants read a job description. Then participants in the control condition played a hand-held game while participants in the experimental condition filled out a biographical questionnaire. The questionnaire was made to increase participants' self-awareness (Duval, Duval & Neely, 1979). I hypothesized that if participants were made self-aware then their tendency to fabricate answers on a subsequent personality test as part of a job application would decrease. Results show significant (p < .05) levels of faking on measures that would tend to make a person a good fit for an accountant job (e.g., extraversion, agreeableness and prudence) but no evidence that increasing self-awareness reduced participants' tendency to fake.