Interpersonal accuracy, bias and the selection interview

The aim of this research was to investigate the interpersonal accuracy of individuals in the context of a selection interview. Interviewers were twenty University Teaching Fellows from departments other than psychology. Interviewees were ten relatively inexperienced tutors from the Psychology Department. Each interviewer conducted two mock interviews with the aim of predicting the job performance of the people she interviewed. Interviewers also completed a self evaluation (measuring the extent to which they were projecting), a stereotype evaluation (to control for stereotype accuracy), as well as the Attributional Complexity Scale (an individual difference measure). All scales (except the Attributional Complexity Scale) were modified forms of questionnaires used as part of tutor feedback in the Psychology Department. Interviewers were rated by their supervisors as well as the students they had tutored during the year. These measures were used as criteria to compare with the predictions of job performance made by the interviewers. As predicted, interviewer subjects who used projection were more accurate in their predictions of job performance than those who didn't. This effect however, was present only in the first interview. As predicted, agreement between the supervisor and the student evaluations about the same interviewee, was significant. However, the results did not support the prediction that accuracy of the interviewers would exceed chance levels. These results are discussed in relation to interpersonal perception and the selection interview