Abstract
The present research examined the role of thinking mode for accuracy in recruiters and laypeople's judgments of applicants' cognitive ability. In Study 1, students who relied on their intuition were somewhat less accurate. In Study 2, an experimental manipulation of thinking mode (intuitive vs analytical) revealed no apparent differences in accuracy. Moreover, there were no differences in accuracy or agreement between recruiters and laypeople. Examination of the use of specific resume content suggested that intuitive thinking corresponds to basing one's judgments more on the way that applicants present themselves in their personal letter and less on diagnostic biographical information such as SAT scores. The findings point to the possibility that professional recruiters may not possess intuitive expertise in this context.
Highlights
Resume screening is one of the most frequently used selection methods (Dipboye & Jackson, 1999), most likely because it is a cheap and easy means of reducing the number of applicants who are subjected to more costly selection measures such as interviews
We looked at how confidence relates to accuracy and thinking mode, and we wanted to confirm that judgments of applicant cognitive ability predict employability judgments
We tested the hypothesis that intuitive thinking would be associated with more inaccuracy, and found this relationship to be weak but in the expected direction and statistically significant, r = 0.17, p = 0.03
Summary
Resume screening is one of the most frequently used selection methods (Dipboye & Jackson, 1999), most likely because it is a cheap and easy means of reducing the number of applicants who are subjected to more costly selection measures such as interviews. In this initial screening process, recruiters take on the role of an employment gatekeeper, determining which applicants are allowed to remain for further consideration and which ones become rejected from the organization (Cole, Feild, Giles & Harris, 2009). Considering that cognitive ability is one of the strongest predictors of work performance across many different occupations (Robertson & Smith, 2001), coupled with the central role it plays in candidate evaluation (Huffcutt, Conway, Roth & Stone, 2001), more research on the antecedents of accuracy in judgments of job applicant cognitive ability is called for
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