Scoring Protocols and Ignoring Pertinent Cues in Personality-Based Structured Interviews

A common practice in personality-based interviews is to assess each trait using only cues solicited by a specific question, and unsolicited cues are to be ignored. Using a person perception theory framework, 247 USA microworkers (52% women, mean age 34 years) participated in an online experiment to test the effects of unsolicited cues on personality trait ratings. Interviewers presented with positive solicited cues could ignore negative unsolicited cues when instructed to do so (d = 1.15, 95% CI [0.45, 1,80]). The manipulation of positive unsolicited cues was ineffective and may be linked to a lack of interviewer experience or negative cues that were disproportionately stronger than positive cues. Unsolicited cues intended to be neutral seemed to impair interviewer self-efficacy. Although results suggest that interviewers can ignore unsolicited cues in some circumstances, results are interpreted with caution in light of the study’s limitations.