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Initial Evaluations in the Interview: Relationships with Subsequent
Interviewer Evaluations and Employment Offers
Murray R. Barrick and Brian W. Swider
Texas A&M University Greg L. Stewart
University of Iowa
The authors of this study examine how evaluations made during an early stage of the structured interview
(rapport building) influence end of interview scores, subsequent follow-up employment interviews, and
actual internship job offers. Candidates making better initial impressions received more internship offers
(r⫽.22) and higher interviewer ratings (r⫽.42). As predicted, initial evaluations of candidate
competence extend beyond liking and similarity to influence subsequent interview outcomes from the
same interviewer (⌬R
2
⫽.05), from a separate interviewer (⌬R
2
⫽.05), and from another interviewer
who skipped rapport building (⌬R
2
⫽.05). In contrast, assessments of candidate liking and similarity
were not significantly related to other judgments when ratings were provided by different interviewers.
The findings of this study thus indicate that initial impressions of candidates influence employment
outcomes, and that they may be based on useful judgments of candidate competence that occur in the
opening minutes of the structured interview.
Keywords: employment interview, self-presentation tactics, impression management, rapport building,
first impression
Face-to-face interviews are frequently used to gather informa-
tion about job applicants (Jelf, 1999). Research over the past
decade has clearly established that the use of structure enhances
the job relevance of this information (Campion, Palmer, & Cam-
pion, 1997; Huffcutt & Arthur, 1994). Yet structured interviews
also contain an unstandardized rapport-building stage where inter-
viewers put candidates at ease by engaging in “small-talk” con-
versations (Chapman & Zweig, 2005). An unanswered question
concerns whether initial impressions from rapport building influ-
ence—even interfere with—the collection of useful information
during the structured interview.
Research in social psychology suggests that during social greet-
ings, individuals develop perceptions of strangers almost instanta-
neously and effortlessly (Ambady & Rosenthal, 1992). Indeed,
initial impressions may be instinctual, as human beings naturally
use whatever information is available to facilitate interaction and
survival (Bar, Neta, & Linz, 2006). In the interview context, recent
research shows that information communicated through something
as simple as a handshake, a smile, or the manner of dress can
influence impressions (Barrick, Shaffer, & DeGrassi, 2009; Stew-
art, Dustin, Barrick, & Darnold, 2008). Thus, one of our purposes
in this study was to examine whether “fast and frugal” judgments
formed during rapport building, even before any structured ques-
tions are asked, affect interview outcomes.
The social interaction inherent in the rapport-building stage can
be viewed as a potential threat to collection of job-related infor-
mation, particularly since the candidate’s primary agenda is to get
a job offer. Yet, cognitive researchers have shown that individuals
can render judgments of competence quickly. Specifically, Willis
and Todorov (2006) found stranger ratings of competence made
after a 100-ms exposure to be highly correlated with ratings
provided by people familiar with the participant. These findings
suggest interviewers may form evaluations of competence even
before structured questions are asked, and the impressions formed
during rapport building may contain job-relevant information. Yet,
research also shows judgments about liking and similarity form
quickly (Zajonc, 1980). In fact, Howard and Ferris (1996) sug-
gested that three evaluations are routinely made by interviewers:
competence of, affect toward, and similarity to candidates. Since
evaluations of liking and similarity in the interview are viewed as
irrelevant to job performance (Posthuma, Morgeson, & Campion,
2002), the “biasing” effect of initial impressions on interview
outcomes is an important issue. In this study, we assessed the
extent to which impressions formed during rapport building cap-
ture information beyond liking and similarity.
Research in social psychology also shows surprising levels of
consensual agreement in strangers’ social perceptions, even after
very brief encounters (Watson, 1989). Employment interviews are
usually conducted by a single interviewer, which makes it difficult
to separate perceptions made early during rapport building from
subsequent evaluations of answers to structured questions. This
likely inflates these relationships. Yet, evidence of agreement in
stranger ratings implies perceptions of candidate competence
formed early in one interview may generalize beyond that
candidate–interviewer dyad. Although the magnitude of the cor-
relation should be smaller, finding a meaningful relationship be-
tween initial impressions of competence, similarity to, or liking for
a candidate from one interviewer and hiring recommendations or
This article was published Online First August 16, 2010.
Murray R. Barrick and Brian W. Swider, Department of Management,
Mays Business School, Texas A&M University; Greg L. Stewart, Depart-
ment of Management, Tippie School of Business, University of Iowa.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Murray
R. Barrick, Department of Management, 420 Wehner, 4221 TAMU, Mays
Business School, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843.
E-mail: mbarrick@mays.tamu.edu
Journal of Applied Psychology © 2010 American Psychological Association
2010, Vol. 95, No. 6, 1163–1172 0021-9010/10/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0019918
1163
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