Applicant and Method Factors Related to Ethnic Score Differences in Personnel Selection: A study at the Dutch police

The aim of this study was to examine applicant and method factors related to ethnic score differences on a cognitive ability test, a personality test, an assessment center (AC), an employment interview, and a final employment recommendation in the con-text of police officer selection (N = 13,526). Score differences between the majority group and the first-generation minority groups were comparable to research findings from the literature. However, score differences between the majority group and sec-ond-generation minority groups were much smaller. On the cognitive ability test and the personality test most variability was explained by Dutch language-proficiency. Confirming assumed-characteristics theory, more variability on the interview and the employment recommendation was explained by Dutch language-proficiency and ed-ucation than on the AC. Unsupportive of complexity–extremity theory, there seemed to be a general tendency to give lower scores to the ethnic minority group. The personnel selection literature has extensively investigated differences on psy-chological measures between ethnic minority and majority groups. This study fo-cuses on ethnicity-related applicant demographics, such as language-proficiency and education, and their interplay with selection-method factors in their impact on test scores. Personnel selection measures can differ in the extent of assessor influ