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WSJ Your Money Briefing
Why People Lie During a Job Interview
00:13:19
Research shows job seekers, and even hiring managers, are likely to lie or embellish the truth during job interviews. Work & Life columnist Rachel Feintzeig explains. Plus, Nicolas Roulin, author of "The Psychology of Job Interviews," discusses why people lie, and what they lie about. J.R. Whalen hosts.
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- [00:00]
Small Business Owner
Access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees, but I don't really need it.
- [00:05]
Retail Industry Representative
Inflation is killing me, but who cares? Big retailers are making record profits. That's why we support the Durbin Marshall credit card bill.
- [00:15]
Small Business Owner
See, banks and credit unions help small businesses make payroll. This bill would cut the vital resources
- [00:20]
Retail Industry Representative
they need while increasing megastore profits. They deserve it, don't they?
- [00:26]
Electronic Payments Coalition Spokesperson
Tell Congress, stop the Durbin Marshall money grab for corporate megastores paid for by the Electronic Payments Coalition.
- [00:36]
J.R. Whalen
Here's your money briefing for Tuesday, January 19th. I'm J.R. whalen for the Wall Street Journal. Let's say you're ready to move on from your current job or you've been out of work and you've applied for a new position, a job you really want. Well, when it comes time for the interview, psychologists say there's likely to be some lying or maybe some bending of the truth.
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Rachel Feinsig
So there's kind of two kinds of lies. One is more about yourself, boasting about yourself. I do the crossword puzzle in pen. Or you might, you know, lie about, I don't know, the varsity sport you played in high school. You know, something to kind of make yourself seem cooler or better than you are. And then the other way that we lie is about other people. So your haircut looks great, you know, something to kind of flatter other people.
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J.R. Whalen
So does lying actually help candidates land jobs? We'll discuss the research that's been done on the topic with our Work in Life columnist Rachel Feinsig, as well as the author of the book the Psychology of Job Interviews. That's after the break.
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Electronic Payments Coalition Spokesperson
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- [02:08]
J.R. Whalen
There are few things in life more nerve wracking than a job interview. Under the pressure, job seekers often lie or embellish the truth. In a moment, we'll speak with Nicholas Rulin, who an associate professor of industrial and organizational psychology, about the specific things that job candidates lie about. But first, let's bring in our Work in Life columnist Rachel Feinsig. She's been looking into this. Rachel, thanks for taking the time to be with us.
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Rachel Feinsig
Thanks so much for having me.
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J.R. Whalen
So, Rachel, there's so much at stake when somebody is trying to Land a job. Does an interview actually, you know, encourage lying or some truth bending?
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Rachel Feinsig
I think so. I mean, it's almost like designed to encourage it in a way. Right? I mean, the person really wants the job, needs employment, and the interviewer is trying to sell the job too. So it's kind of coming from both sides.
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J.R. Whalen
Okay, so let's try to get inside a job seeker's head. How does the job candidate's confidence in getting a job affect the way that they might mislead a hiring manager?
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Rachel Feinsig
That's a good question. I mean, I think personality does have something to do with this. I mean, the research shows that folks that have sort of this dark triad of personality traits, things like narcissism, for example, Machiavellianism, tend to lie more. So. So I think some of it does depend on your personality. But this is also just ubiquitous. I mean, obviously this is all on a spectrum. Some of the lies might be more nefarious than other little white lies, but at the end of the day, everyone is prone, it seems, according to the research, everyone is prone to at least some kind of exaggeration in a job interview.
- [03:42]
J.R. Whalen
And sometimes, I guess lies or exaggerations can roll off your tongue when you're in conversation. But what about mistruths on your resume?
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Rachel Feinsig
You know, on your resume, obviously, if you're doing things like inventing a degree, inventing an award, I mean, that a. Like, you know, it probably will come back to bite you at some point. But even if no one figures it out and you just get this job that you're not a fit for and you disappoint everyone or, you know, you don't excel at it, you're not happy. It's really, you know, researchers told me this is really just a lose lose situation, especially dropping big lies like that. There are instances on a resume where it might make sense to not disclose things. You know, things like the year that you graduated from school, where you live, if you're open to, if you're open and dedicated to moving to a new city, you know, there are things that you put on your resume that might open you up to various kinds of discrimination. And the folks I talked to said it's fair game to just leave some of those items off.
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J.R. Whalen
All right, let's find out more about why people lie during a job interview and, and whether it actually works. Nicholas Rulin is here with us now. He's an associate professor of industrial and organizational psychology at St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Nicholas, thanks for being with us.
- [04:54]
Nicholas Rulin
You're welcome. Happy to be with you.
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J.R. Whalen
So you're the author of the book the Psychology of Job Interviews, and obviously a candidate wants to land a job, and that can lead them to lie. But psychologically, what's going on beneath the surface in that conversation with an interviewer?
- [05:09]
Nicholas Rulin
As you said, the job interview is a very important entryway into, of course, getting a position. And therefore, applicants have an incentive to try to put their best foot forward during this job interview. And that in some cases may lead to using deception or what we call faking in the interview. And so there are a number of ways that applicants can try to influence the interviewer using those strategies or tactics. One of them would be to use something we call ingratiation. So trying to demonstrate forms of similarities between them and the interviewer or perhaps the organization, and try to showcase that they would be a good match, for instance, for the organization, for instance, with an ingratiation, what you can do is if you see that the interviewer has some specific passions or values or things they care about, even if it's not something that you deeply care about yourself, you can try to pretend that's something you do care about. So, for instance, imagine the interviewer loves to go hiking. I mean, you've been in a small walk from time to time, but you're not definitely a professional hiker. But you can pretend you do a long hike every Sunday with your friends or family, and you love to do that so that you look more similar to the interviewer. Or if you know that the organization, for instance, values, let's say, is very environmental friendly, worries about the climate or things like that, and that's not something you really care about. But you can still pretend you go plant trees during the weekend because you care about the environment very much.
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J.R. Whalen
Now, how does the culture at a company affect how a candidate would present themselves in an interview?
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Nicholas Rulin
We've done some research showing, for instance, that if the company is, let's say, more competitive in nature, or if the company culture is more innovative in nature, that changes the way the job applicants see what, let's say the ideal candidate looks like, and that triggers them to actually change the way they will present themselves in the selection process. So that could be in an interview, but it could be also when they complete some form of personality assessment, for instance, and so they will try to look like someone that would fit within the organization. So, for instance, again, if they know the company has a really competitive culture, they may try to present themselves as slightly less agreeable or honest if they Think the company is a lot more innovative. They try to appear a little bit more open minded, for instance, so that they actually fit with that culture and increase their chances to actually get the job in the end.
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J.R. Whalen
In your research, what have you learned about the specific things that people tend to lie about or embellish about themselves?
- [07:49]
Nicholas Rulin
Well, there are a number of things they can do, but I'd say two big categories would be the kind of qualification or skills people have, as well as experiences, professional experiences they may have. And so as you said, that could be slight embellishment or that could go all the way to large exaggeration or actually making up something. So as an example, let's imagine you speak a little bit of a second language, maybe Spanish, maybe Chinese, maybe French, but you're definitely not fluent in that language. If you know being fluent will actually be an asset for you to get the job. You can actually pretend to be fluent in that second language, for instance. Or that could be about programming skill if you're working in the technology industry. Or that could be trying to embellish a little bit your past professional accomplishments because you believe they will look good to the organizational interviewer.
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J.R. Whalen
Does someone's age play a role in how they might lie about themselves?
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Nicholas Rulin
What we know is that there seems to be a little bit more lie or faking with somewhat younger or less experienced job applicant as compared to more senior or experienced applicants. And the main reason is likely because when you go to a job interview, for instance, when you lie is oftentimes because you believe your qualification may not be strong enough to actually land the job. And so if you are fresh out of high school or college and you go to job interview and you realize your qualification may be somewhat limited, there is an incentive here to make up for that maybe gap by exaggerating, embellishing. But if you are in, let's say your 40s or 50s and you have extensive experience, you can rely on that experience in your responses. And you don't really need to engage in that faking that much.
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J.R. Whalen
Now, how does somebody's digital footprint help in the process of a hiring manager? You know, weeding out the truth?
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Nicholas Rulin
Right now it's, you know, much easier for an employer to do any kind of, let's say, background check. I mean, you can always call previous employer, but you know, it's easy to snoop on someone's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on and find some red flags. And there is quite a bit of research showing that employers do this and usually use those red flags to make decision about not potentially hiring someone. And so it becomes much more important for job applicants to be more mindful and careful about what they do, what they say online. And also they can somehow clean up their past if they need to maybe alleviate some of the concerns the employer may have.
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J.R. Whalen
Okay, so bottom line this for me. Does lying or embellishing tend to help people actually land a job?
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Nicholas Rulin
Well, not too much, actually. That's the interesting point. We found that the more people fake does not really improve their chances to obtain a job in the end. Sometimes it could lead to, let's say, a second interview or moving on a little bit in the selection process, but ultimately they somehow get caught somewhere. That could be background checking. That could be some other reason. But it seems that honesty seems to be the best policy. So people that are better able to demonstrate their true qualification, experiences, skills, and so on tend to do much better in interviews than those who exaggerate or embellish.
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J.R. Whalen
Okay, that's Nicholas Rulin from St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Nicholas, thanks for being with us.
- [11:05]
Nicholas Rulin
You're welcome.
- [11:06]
J.R. Whalen
So, Rachel, you know, we're here talking about job seekers telling fibs, but what about a job interviewer? What incentives do they have to lie or, you know, bend the truth?
- [11:16]
Rachel Feinsig
You know, I think some of it is psychological. Like, we all want to feel like we made the right decisions. We chose to work at this company, and it is indeed a great place to work. We don't want to feel like we're the ones who have made a mistake by, like keeping this terrible job. So I think a lot of it is kind of subconscious. I also think that companies tend to put their corporate cheerleaders forward. Especially, you know, these days. We see so many rounds of interviews, group interviews, you know, and so of course, companies are kind of cherry picking the people that are going to be more positive about this. And the last thing is, I mean, sometimes people just want like, you know, a body in the chair to help with the workload. If you are a manager and you lost someone or your workload has increased and that's why you've gotten permission to hire, I mean, you're really, you know, it's like it's totally in your self interest to just have someone on board quickly.
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J.R. Whalen
Okay, so back to job seekers. What does research show in terms of different ways that men and women might embellish things?
- [12:11]
Rachel Feinsig
So there's kind of two kinds of lies. One is more about yourself, boasting about yourself. I do the crossword puzzle and pen. Or you might, you Know, lie about, I don't know, the varsity sport you played in high school. You know, something to kind of make yourself seem cooler or better than you are. And then the other way that we lie is about other people. So your haircut looks great, you know, something to kind of flatter other people. And so research shows that men 10 to lie more about themselves. That kind of boasting. And women tend to lie more about others to make others feel good about themselves. I should probably share that. The researchers told me it's really hard to tell if someone's lying. I mean, people think that they can tell, but the truth is that body language doesn't really work. You can kind of tell if you look at what someone is saying. People who are telling the truth tend to be able to correct themselves, like admit that they made a mistake, revise something they said. They tend to provide more details. But at the end of the day, it's really hard to tell if someone is lying.
- [13:08]
J.R. Whalen
Okay, but if a job seeker lies, that might be an effort to fill in some sort of a gap in experience or confidence they feel that they're lacking. So what kind of questions could they have ready to ask a hiring manager to create some rapport and maybe build up their sense of self confidence?
- [13:24]
Rachel Feinsig
Yeah, I think one of the things is to really ask specifics, especially about things like corporate culture. So, you know, a career expert, you know, use as an example, like, what's the last kind of bonding event that your team did? How much interaction does your CEO have with a have with a team? Corporate culture can just be such a fuzzy thing. But that's what everyone wants to know, right? Like, what's it going to be like working at this job? So I think asking really pointed questions about that and then also giving your interviewer a chance to list a pro and a con. I think you're more likely to get kind of that honest answer if you ask them first, like, what's great? What's the best thing about working at this company? And then you can go in for the, like, why the people who do leave, why do they leave? So that's a way to kind of get more of an honest response from your interviewer.
- [14:11]
J.R. Whalen
All right, that's Wall Street Journal work and life columnist Rachel Feinsig. Rachel, thanks for coming on the show.
- [14:16]
Rachel Feinsig
Thanks so much for having me.
- [14:17]
J.R. Whalen
And that's your Money briefing. I'm J.R. whalen for the Wall Street Journal.
- [14:22]
Small Business Owner
Access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees, but I don't really need it.
- [14:27]
Retail Industry Representative
Inflation is killing me. But who cares? Big retailers are making record profits. That's why we support the Durban Marshall credit card bill.
- [14:36]
Small Business Owner
See, banks and credit unions help small businesses make payroll. This bill would cut the vital resources
- [14:41]
Retail Industry Representative
they need while increasing megastore profits. They deserve it, don't they?
- [14:47]
Electronic Payments Coalition Spokesperson
Tell Congress, stop the Durbin Marshall money grab for corporate megastores paid for by the Electronic Payments Coalition.