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The effects of faking on the relationship between cognitive ability and conscientiousness: A cautionary note
Author(s) -
Davison H. Kristl,
Kluemper Donald H.,
Tao Siyi,
Stewart David W.,
Bing Mark
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of selection and assessment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.812
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1468-2389
pISSN - 0965-075X
DOI - 10.1111/ijsa.12319
Subject(s) - conscientiousness , psychology , collinearity , cognition , personality , social psychology , need for cognition , big five personality traits , cognitive psychology , statistics , mathematics , neuroscience , extraversion and introversion
It is well‐established that selection decisions can be improved using multiple non‐redundant assessments. Two such assessments are cognitive ability and conscientiousness. Though meta‐analytic findings demonstrate little or no relationship between cognitive ability and conscientiousness, faking research suggests the two variables are related when test‐takers are motivated to fake. We extend this logic by showing that incremental validity for conscientiousness declines when respondents fake, due to enhanced collinearity between conscientiousness and cognitive ability. Three studies, employing within‐subjects designs and utilizing three different faking conditions, reveal a consistent increase in collinearity between conscientiousness and cognitive ability when respondents are motivated to fake, leading to reduced incremental validity of conscientiousness beyond cognitive ability in predicting the performance. Implications for selection systems are discussed.