What is Applicant Faking Behavior? A Review on the Current State of Theory and Modeling Techniques

Abstract

Socially desirable responding has become a central concept in research regarding applicants’ deliberate distortions in answering personality tests. Key findings based on this concept infer that such distortions do not impair the utility of personality measures for personnel selection. However, in recent years some scholars questioned the utility of social desirability itself as concept and introduced another applicant faking behavior. This narrative review provides an overview and integration of this construct by proposing a definition of applicant faking behavior, the current state of faking theory, and latest techniques to model and detect applicant faking. Implications of these findings for research and personnel selection are discussed.

Keywords

• applicant faking behavior
• personality test
• personnel selection
• socially desirable responding
• response distortion