Perceptual biases in employment interview

Perceptual biases of raters affect the accuracy of interviewer's judgements of applicants.

Interviewers make perceptual judgements that are often inaccurate and draw early impressions that quickly become entrenched.

Research shows that people form impressions of others within a tenth of a second, based on their first glance.

If these first impressions are negative, they tend to be more heavily weighted in the interview than if that same information came out later.

Information elicited early in the interview carries greater weight than does information elicited later, and a 'good applicant' is probably characterised more by the absence of unfavourable characteristics than by the presence of favourable ones.