An experimental study of the effects of the temporal placement of unfavorable information during the selection interview

This study was an attempt to determine the effects of the temporal placement of unfavorable information during the selection interview. It also involved examining the effect of the content area of the unfavorable information and the dogmatism of the raters. The four hypotheses tested were: 1. The earlier the unfavorable information comes in the interview, the less favorable the ratings of the interviewee will be; more specifically: a. When the unfavorable information comes during the first third of the interview, the ratings of the applicant will be the lowest. b. When the unfavorable information comes during the second third, the ratings will be intermediate. c. When the unfavorable information comes during the final third, the ratings will be the highest. 2. The ratings will be lowest where the unfavorable information is embedded in the social-personal content area and comes during the first third of the interview (on the assumption that the social-personal area was mere subject to interviewer bias). 3. There will be a negative correlation between D-scale scores and the degree of favorability of the interviewer's ratings. 4. For the high-D subjects, the effect of the temporal location of the unfavorable information will be stronger than for low-D subjects. The hypotheses were tested by having subjects rate the applicant in an audio tape recording of a selection interview simulation. A counterbalanced design using 18 sets of subjects was utilized. Hypothesis 1 was statistically tested by using analysis of variance. It was generally verified, with the exception of proposition b. Multiple regression techniques were used in analyzing the data associated with the hypotheses 2, 3, and 4. None of these hypotheses were supported.Psychology, Department o