Reduction of faking with the use of a forced‐choice personality test: Cross‐cultural comparisons between South Korea and the United States.

Forced‐choice format tests have been suggested as an alternative to Likert‐scale measures for personnel selection due to robustness to faking and response styles. This study compared degrees of faking occurring in Likert‐scale and forced‐choice five‐factor personality tests between South Korea and the United States. Also, it was examined whether the forced‐choice format was effective at reducing faking in both countries. Data were collected from 396 incumbents participating in both honest and applicant conditions (NSK = 179, NUS = 217). Cohen's d values for within‐subjects designs (dswithin) for between the two conditions were utilized to measure magnitudes of faking occurring in each format and country. In both countries, the degrees of faking occurring in the Likert‐scale were larger than those from the forced‐choice format, and the magnitudes of faking across five personality traits were larger in South Korea by from 0.07 to 0.12 in dswithin. The forced‐choice format appeared to successfully reduce faking for both countries as the average dswithin decreased by 0.06 in both countries. However, the patterns of faking occurring in the forced‐choice format varied between the two countries. In South Korea, degrees of faking in Openness and Conscientiousness increased, whereas those in Extraversion and Agreeableness were substantially decreased. Potential factors leading to trait‐specific faking under the forced‐choice format were discussed in relation to cultural influence on the perception of personality traits and score estimation in Thurstonian item response theory (IRT) models. Finally, the adverse impact of using forced‐choice formats on multicultural selection settings was elaborated. Practitioner Points: The benefit of using forced‐choice formats for cross‐cultural selection settings is not yet clear because there is a lack of scholarly evidence on the performance of forced‐choice formats with respect to faking occurring in different cultures.With the use of a forced‐choice format personality test, the magnitudes of faking decreased in the United States for all five personality traits, whereas the magnitudes of faking occurring in Openness and Conscientiousness increased in South Korea.Potential factors leading to trait‐specific faking under the forced‐choice format can be related to cultural influences on the perception of personality traits and score estimation in Thurstonian item response theory (IRT) models.Practitioners should consider cultural differences in how applicants view target constructs if a forced‐choice format is considered for cross‐cultural/international personnel selection settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]