What does a test say about the mind?: Personality tests as discursive objects in recruitment interviews

Abstract

In this article, we examine how recruiters and applicants talk about personality tests, reflecting presuppositions about personality and its accessibility. Using video-recorded data from 21 Finnish job interviews, we show how the personality test functions as a discursive object for managing stakes in the recruitment process. When applicants referred to the test after receiving positive evaluations, they emphasized its ability to reveal their personality, thus reinforcing the evaluation. In these moments, both recruiters and applicants treated the test as structured and purposeful. When test talk occurred before receiving results, applicants highlighted the test’s limitations in accessing their personality, creating space to reinterpret outcomes. Recruiters, in contrast, treated the test as a reliable tool, emphasizing its role in identifying inconsistencies in applicants’ conduct. Our findings show that personality tests can both enable and constrain participants’ ability to manage stakes, contributing to the impression of objectivity and truth-finding during job interviews.