Job interview a candidate at a job interview

Method bias

Response bias is another cross-cultural difference that has been shown to affect how we measure constructs and interpret the results.^[216] Social desirability bias is a tendency to give a socially acceptable answer, even if it is a lie, because we want to look good. Giving socially acceptable, but part or completely false, answers can inflate interview scores.^[217] One simple example of socially acceptable answers is called acquiescence bias, which is a tendency to agree with all questions with positive meaning.^[217] People also have been found to show different attitudes towards answers on the extreme high and low end of a set of options (extremely agree or extremely disagree).^[217] In some cases, people from different cultures may just be unfamiliar with a word (term, concept, context) or with a type of question.^[217] Another research study found that self and other reports of conscientiousness failed to relate with expected job behaviors across cultures, demonstrating that one of the most predictive constructs in the USA is tied to aspects of USA culture that may not be present in a different type of culture.^[205]
For example, in the West, applicants prefer to eliminate details and focus on the larger issue, tending towards a comprehensive evaluation starting from individual elements then moving towards the whole.^[218] In Japan, a respondent would go from the general to the specific in answering, preferring to divide a problem and analyze it piece by piece. Likewise, there are differences between individualist and collectivist cultures in the types of answers they chose. When given a series of options, individualists tend to choose the task-oriented option that involves direct communication with others.^[218] Yet collectivists choose the option that sees group harmony and protecting or saving face for others as more important.^[218] These differences can introduce method bias when interviewers evaluate or score how the applicant did in the interview. This is why it is important to understand how and why the best answer in one culture is not the best elsewhere. It might even be completely wrong.

Item bias

There is also item bias introduced by the actual items or questions in an interview. Poor item translation can be a problem.^[209] This might be incorrectly translating the same item to another language such as in an organization that hires both English and Spanish speaking employees. Or it might be in someone not understanding the wording of an item because they are not native to that country's language. Similar to construct bias, the wording of an item can result in measuring different traits because of different meanings in the two different cultures.