The Impact of Rater-Rates Similarity in the Selection of Job Applicants

摘要

Selection among job applicants may be affected by similarity of rater and ratee on job-irrelevant dimensions (eg., race, sex, social affiliations, hometown), potentially leading to discriminatory hiring practices. A critical literature review indicates that the predicted positive, as well as non-significant and even negative similarity-rating relations are observed. Four social psychological models suggest different conditions for limiting or reversing the sign of the predicted similarity-rating relation. These conditions were manipulated in a simulation of the rating process using students as raters.