October 1, 1998

7 Min Read
Don't Hire 'Til You Check the Whites of Their EyesTesting and physiology combine to create effective interviews

Don't Hire 'Til You Check the Whites of Their Eyes

Testing and physiology combine to create effective interviews

By Beth Rosengren

"Don't hire until you check the whites of their eyes." OK, so it's not quitethe way Colonel William Prescott said it, and this isn't the Battle at Bunker Hill, butyou get the idea. Direct your energy to where it will do some good. The men on Bunker Hillwere short on ammunition and every shot had to count; likewise in the hiring arena, sincelegislation has eliminated numerous techniques for learning about job candidates.

Because former employers have "clammed up" for fear of lawsuits, and resumewriters are able to transform the smallest achievements into Nobel Prize worthiness,employment checks and resumes have lost their punch. Employers are utilizing other methodsfor making hiring decisions. Two of these are pre-employment testing and the knowledgegleaned from the interview. Combined with interpretation of physiological signals such aseye movement, using testing before speaking to a job candidate offers key topics todiscuss and, at the same time, creates a powerful interview.

Because of his strong belief in testing and purposeful interviews, industrialpsychologist Gregory M. Lousig-Nont, Ph.D., created the Phase II Profile, an honesty andintegrity profile that has been used for the past 20 years to evaluate job candidates.Lousig-Nont, a former law-enforcement officer with a master's degree in criminology,developed the profile based on observation while interviewing job applicants. Hediscovered that individuals involved in theft have attitudes in common. Thepencil-and-paper employment integrity test asks questions that determine the levels ofhonesty and integrity a person may possess.

Honesty and integrity tests are written psychological instruments that claim toidentify people who have a tendency toward dishonesty or irresponsibility in the workplace. There are several types, but studies have shown that tests based on open admissionsof attitudes and behavior are more reliable than personality-based tests.

Why would applicants even admit to dishonest behavior? The reason for an applicant'struthfulness on written tests is that they think if they try to fake their way through,they will appear too honest. They're correct. Reliable and valid honesty tests havecontrol questions that act as built-in safeguards to tip off whether test takers areanswering honestly. Without validity scales, tests can be faked. Another reason for beingtruthful is that people who are dishonest rationalize their actions.

"They feel their conduct is justified, and see themselves as ordinary people in adishonest world where everyone else is stealing too," says Lousig-Nont, president ofthe Las Vegas-based, human-resource consulting firm Lousig-Nont & Associates."Honest people do not have the intrinsic ability to rationalize as do dishonestpeople."

Wouldn't you like to know why your job candidate felt there was a time when they mighthave had a good reason to steal from a place where they worked, even though they didn't?Many people answer "true" to this question on the Phase II Profile, and theyalso admit to actual dollar amounts they have stolen from their previous employers.

Interviewing Techniques

In his study of employment screening methods, Lousig-Nont writes about some techniqueson interviewing:

The major problem with most interviews is similar to the problem with most applicationforms--the areas that are really important to know about in order to make an informedhiring decision (i.e., what a person is really like) are usually never addressed. A morecomprehensive profile of a person is needed to make this kind of determination.

Profiling applicants involves learning to interpret the outward manifestations of theinner physiology that takes place when a person lies. Proxemics (how each of us handlespersonal space), nuero linguistics (the study of eye movements with relation to which sideof the brain is being assessed in order to formulate an answer to a question) and kinetics(the study of body movements) are the three areas of knowledge that give an interviewer anedge. The fear of being detected in a lie sets off these physiological activities.Truthful answers are generally very direct with no accompanying body movements.

Eye movement in response to a direct question should send up a red flag to theinterviewer. If you ask applicants if they have ever been fired from a job, they should beable to answer this question immediately without hesitation. If they say no, but look tothe left, they may be remembering the time when the boss called them into the office andfired them. If they look to the right, they may be constructing a plausible"but" (i.e., "No, I wasn't fired, but I was laid off.").

However, only if the questions are phrased by the interviewer in a straightforward,simple, direct manner can eye movement be questioned as an instrument of deception. If thequestion is direct and to-the-point, one that shouldn't require too much thought, such as,"Did you ever murder anyone in cold blood?", no significant eye movement shouldbe noted. Every person should have his information readily available in their consciousminds for immediate retrieval. If a direct question such as this elicits an answer suchas, "Not that I can remember," an interviewer should be concerned.

The astute interviewer listens to make sure that the interviewee's answers are givendirectly and are not evasive. An evasive answer could be characterized as follows: You askif the person has ever been fired from a job, and instead of the applicant answering yesor no, they reply, "I have always had a good work history." This answer is givenin the hopes that you will move on to the next inquiry. They really didn't lie becausethey didn't deny your question. They gave you an answer they hoped would be interpreted asmeaning that they had never been fired from a job.

The interviewer should be aware of delayed answers. Remember, the truth is made readilyavailable. Only a lie takes time to concoct. Repeating the question, answering a questionwith a question, too-quick, broken or incomplete answers, as well as swearing to God, on astack of Bibles or on a dead mother's grave, should all be viewed with caution.

It is always advisable to shake the applicant's hand prior to the interview toestablish a norm, and after the interview for comparison. If, before the interview, theapplicant's hand is warm and dry, and after is cold and wet, then the individual has gonethrough some intense sympathetic-nervous-system arousal during your interview.Sympathetic-nervous-system arousal causes increased perspiration and decrease warmthbecause of a lack of blood in the extremities and the capillaries close to the skin.

The professional interviewer must realize certain factors that can taint thereliability of such behavior. If the room is cold, the person may sit with arms and legscrossed. If the interviewer mumbles when asking a question, the interviewee may repeat thequestions for clarity. If the interviewer asks questions that are vague and ambiguous, theinterviewee may hesitate. You must also be aware that there are cultural and emotionalexceptions to these general rules.

One single variance in behavior may be meaningless; however, if the examinee continuesto exhibit the same behavior each time an area is discussed, it is a strong indicator ofproblems with that area. I suggest that if deceptive behavior is noticed when discussing aperson's last place of employment, for example, that the interviewer proceed with otherareas of the inquiry. After the interviewer has proceeded for about two or three minutes,go back to discussing that last job again. If, in discussing the previous job, thebehavior once again appears, then the interviewer must conclude that there is a seriousproblem associated with this previous employment.

Conclusion

Unlike Bunker Hill, it's not necessary to see the whites of your future employees eyes,but you can gain insight on what a person is like. You can do this through testingcandidates, then paying attention to eye movements and body gestures during the interview.You are not on the battlefield (although sometimes if feels as though you are), and yourprospective employees are not your enemies--but they can be if you hire the wrong one.

Lousig-Nont & Associates has compiled a report entitled "Honesty inAmerica," which is available at no charge by calling (800) 477-3211, or by writingto: Lousig-Nont & Associates, 3740 S. Royal Crest St., Las Vegas NV 89119.

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