Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Test Of Expectancy Theory And Demographic Characteristics As Predictors Of Faking And Honesty In Employment Interviews, Jordan L. Ho, Deborah Powell

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Job applicants vary in the extent to which they fake or stay honest in employment interviews, yet the contextual and demographic factors underlying these behaviors are unclear. To help answer this question, we drew on Ellingson and McFarland’s (2011) framework of faking based in valence-instrumentality-expectancy theory. Study 1 collected normative data and established baseline distributions for instrumentality-expectancy beliefs from a Canadian municipality. Results indicated that most respondents had low levels of instrumentality-expectancy beliefs for faking, but high levels for honesty. Moreover, income, education, and age were antecedents of instrumentality-expectancy beliefs. Study 2 extended these findings with a United States sample …