Should Faking Ability on Pre-Employment Tests Be Reviled or Revered in Retail Sales?

Abstract: Applicants’ faking of personality test responses is a major concern in pre-employment testing. The prevailing research has found faking to be positively related to reviled employee attributes, but some recent research has unveiled positive relations between faking and revered attributes. We examined the relationships of a gold standard measure of faking ability with employee attributes among a sample of working individuals ( N = 347). Within our simulated pre-employment testing scenario, faking ability had negative relationships with organizationally reviled attributes and positive relationships with organizationally revered attributes. Our results suggest that within a retail sales context, applicants with the ability to fake their responses to pre-employment personality tests may have an increased likelihood of possessing sought-after traits and thus could be valued by employers.