Implicit sources of bias in employment interview judgments and decisions.

This study empirically examined implicit sources of bias in employment interview judgments and decisions. We examined two ethnic cues, accent and name, as sources of bias that may trigger prejudicial attitudes and decisions. As predicted, there was an interaction between the applicant name and accent that affected participants’ favorable judgments of applicant characteristics. The applicant with the ethnic name, speaking with an accent, was viewed less positively by interviewers than the ethnic named applicant without an accent and non-ethnic named applicants with and without an accent. Furthermore, modern ethnicity bias had a negative association with the favorable judgments of the applicants, which, in turn, affected hiring decisions. Implications of the results, limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed. Bias in the Interview 3 Implicit Sources of Bias in Employment Interview Judgments and Decisions The employment interview is an important source for information and remains, by far, the most frequently used employment selection and decision-making device in organizations (e.g., Eder & Harris, 1999; Posthuma, Morgeson, & Campion, 2002). Unfortunately, this reality stands in stark contrast to the continued questions about interview validity and the persistence of biases in the interview process, suggesting that more research in this area is needed (Pingitore, Dugoni, Tindale, & Spring, 1994; Roehling, Campion, & Arvey, 1999). In particular, the effects of various interviewer and applicant characteristics on the interview process and outcomes deserve additional exploration (Dipboye, 1992). Although some research has addressed these issues, most of the studies of interviewer biases and stereotypes have focused on non-subtle, demographic effects on interviewers’ judgments and decisions. In a review of the interview literature, Posthuma et al. (2002) suggested that researchers redirect attention from examining simple demographic effects and consider these as potential cues for other causal factors, particularly attitudes and values. The present study addresses this appeal, and it extends previous work on applicant characteristics by focusing on the effects of implicit or subtle cues on interview outcomes within the framework of modern racism or modern ethnicity bias. Specifically, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the extent to which ethnic name and accent serve as cues that trigger biased interviewer judgments and decisions in the employment interview process. Employment Interview As a traditional component of most organizations’ human resource management selection systems, research has been conducted on the employment interview for nearly a century (e.g., Eder & Harris, 1999). Interview scholars have been interested in a broad range of topics over the years, including psychometric properties of the interview as a measurement device, interview format and type (e.g., structured, unstructured and situational), notions of fit (e.g., person-job and person-organization), and interviewer cognition and Bias in the Interview 4 decision-making processes. However, we need more employment interview research examining the effects of applicant demographic characteristics as cues affecting interviewer judgments and decisions. Research needs to probe beyond simple demographic category effects to investigate potential underlying reasons for what are observed as judgment and decision biases. With increased interest in person-organization fit in the interview, there has come a realization that the homogenization effects from such assessments, which drive employment decisions, potentially could account for discrimination effects (e.g., Judge & Ferris, 1992). However, we still need to know much more about the perceptual cues associated with applicants of different races and ethnicities that might be driving these assessments, judgments, and employment decisions. The Psychological Processes of Prejudice and Stereotyping Prejudicial attitudes, as well as other interviewer characteristics, such as race and personality, affect interviewer perceptions of applicants (Dipboye, 1992). Prejudice and ethnicity stereotypes tend to be positively related to each other in both the historical and current views (Dovidio, Brigham, Johnson, & Gaertner, 1996), and some researchers have agreed that the positive relationship is due to stereotypes being the cognitive component of racial attitudes or prejudice (Jones, 1986). Stereotypes are particular types of knowledge structures or cognitive schema that link group membership to certain traits (Ford & Stangor, 1992; Nesdale & Rooney, 1990), and which have been found to influence the interpretation of others’ behavior (Duncan, 1976), the memory of others (Stangor & McMillan, 1992), and behavior toward others (Snyder, Tanke, & Berscheid,