8 Reasons of Interview Biases

A candidate enters in any organization after qualifying the interviews. Often it happens that a candidate is rejected even if he/she possesses all the required performance management skills and qualifications. He may be the victim of interview bias. Interview biases can take place because of many reasons.

Common conditions that can generate the bias at some stage in interviews are as follows:

Personal Clash:  This may happen due to prejudice. The person taking the interview may have some personal disliking towards the candidate. A professional history may be the reason. He may not hire the candidate on this basis.

Interview Tensions:  Sometimes, egocentric personalities do not go along well. During this kind of interview process, tense situations arise between the interviewer and the candidate. This can also lead to biased results.

Personal Contact:  A candidate may know the interviews on a personal level outside the professional world. The interviewer will have an inclination towards his/her friend and will tend to treat him with more priority irrespective of his skills. This result in unfair selection process and leads to the rejection of better skilled candidates.

List of Interview Biases:

Some of the interview biases that happen in the selection process are as follows:

1. The Halo Effect Bias: It is also known as the physical attractiveness stereotype and ‘what is beautiful is good’ principle. How a person looks influences how we think and feel about his/her character.
2. Leniency/Strictness Bias: Some interviewers are very lenient while others are very strict with logical and reasoning approaches.
3. Appraiser Bias: This bias is based upon applicant’s personal beliefs, religion, nature, preferences, caste, assumptions, demographic differences etc.
4. Horn Effect and Negative Emphasis Bias: The interviewer many times observes a candidate on small things. It is as if you enter the interview cabin gracefully with a beautiful smile on the face and enthusiastically say, “Isn’t today an awesome day?” Moreover, the interview starts to assume you according to this behavior.
5. Contract Bias: When the interviewer compares the applicants to each other and all other applicants to a single one. For example if Simon is vulnerable in a few skill, different applicants will look like comparatively certified than him.
6. Simplification Bias: This bias occurs when the interviewer judge a candidate because of situational behavior. It is natural to be nervous during the interview and the interviewer may take it as a habit of the candidate.
7. Cultural Noise Bias: It occurs when the candidate replies to the interviewer based on the facts and information, which he thinks can help him get the job. There is myth of replying the questions which can please the interviewer or which interviewer want to hear.
8. Non-Verbal Bias: This bias is based on the candidate’s body language. We belong to different ethnicity, we have different education, and our understanding differs depending upon our experiences, so these values have morphed us in different ways. We represent different set of belief, values, perspectives and preferences individually. Sometimes interview biases can create unwanted problems, which can adopt a serious face. Therefore, it is a moral duty as well to cope up with these biases.