The faking of personality questionnaire results: who's kidding whom?

Explores the faking‐good of personality questionnaire results in occupational settings. Identifies three specific lines of research into faking‐good: first, whether it is possible for candidates to fake‐good personality questionnaire results; second, whether faking‐good adversely affects the criterion validity of personality questionnaire results; third, whether candidates actually engage in faking‐good behaviour. Notes, in relation to this third line of enquiry, the lack of information about the views of candidates and potential users of personality questionnaires towards the faking‐good of personality questionnaire results. Proceeds to explore the views of 190 people employed in personnel departments in the North‐West of England towards various issues associated with the faking‐good of personality questionnaire results. These issues include: the ease with which personality questionnaire results can be faked; the ease with which faking‐good can be detected; the extent to which candidates actually fake‐good; the ethics of faking‐good responding. The implications of the study focus on matters such as the face validity of personality questionnaires, the training of test users and the future development of non‐transparent fake‐good scales.