The moderating effect of interview structure on race-group similarity effects in simulated interview ratings

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigated race-group similarity effects as a form of interviewer bias in selectioninterview ratings. Social Identity Theory predicts that interviewers would assign higher ratings tointerviewees of the same social group (the so-called in-group) primarily through the mechanism ofsimilarity attraction. Research findings up to now have lent only partial support to this hypothesis.This study argues that interview structure may help to explain inconsistent research findings sincestructure could inhibit the functioning of the similarity-attraction mechanism. The present researchpursued two objectives, namely (1) to determine the degree to which race-group similarity (betweeninterviewer and interviewee) exerts a biasing effect on selection interview dimension ratings, (2) todetermine whether same-group bias increases when interview structure is experimentallydiminished. This experimental study manipulated the degree of structure in interviews (high- andlow-structured conditions) and compared the degree to which race group similarity effects wereevident under each condition. Interviews were simulated by showing video-taped interviewsegments to a sample of participants and asking them to rate interview dimensions on rating scalesthat had been compiled to reflect the degree of structure in each condition. The data were analysedusing Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) and multiple regression analysis to determine whethersimilarity effects were present in the interview rating data. The results support the hypothesis thatracial similarity effects are found under low-structured conditions, as well as the hypothesis thatinterview structure moderates the influence of similarity effects. However, racial similarity effectswere also found with the highly structured condition. Although these effects were smaller than inthe low-structured condition, they were statistically significant. Future research should attempt toreplicate this study as a field study to test the generalisability of the findings.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University