Faking Good and Personality Assessments of Job applicants: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

High stakes selection contexts often drive the provision of socially desirable responses from job applicants. This can take the form of ‘faking good’ and can lead to inaccurate personality assessments. This article reviews the extant research on the extent to which faking good occurs, the psychological factors that may lead to faking good by job applicants, and how faking good is measured. In particular, the review considers the role of moral hypocrisy in this regard and considers how it can be minimised.