Moderating effects of rater personality on the relation between candidate self-monitoring and selection interview ratings

The present study examined the moderating effect of rater personality - extroversion and sensitivity to others - on the relations between selection interview ratings and measures of candidate self-monitoring (SM) and social anxiety (SA). In a real-life military selection procedure setting in which 445 candidates and 93 raters participated, rater extroversion moderated the relation between candidate SM and selection interview ratings so that this relation was negative for raters low on extroversion and positive for raters high on extroversion. Rater extroversion was also found to moderate the negative relation between candidate SA and selection interview ratings. No support was found for the moderating effect of rater sensitivity to others. An explanation of the moderating effect of rater extroversion based on the assumption that extroversion is negatively related to critical interpersonal sensitivity was suggested.