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Although video resumes have received a substantial amount of media attention and there seems to be a growing awareness among Human Resource professionals of video-based job applications, little is known about the effect of video resumes on applicant evaluation. This research investigates the effectiveness of self-promotion within the context of video resumes. Self-promotion frequency and intensity and applicant gender were manipulated. Ratings by recruiters and college students indicate that high levels of self-promotion in video resumes are ineffective for male applicants and potentially detrimental for female applicants. Job applicants should use caution when attempting to promote themselves using video resumes. More research is needed on impression management tactics used at the earliest stages of selection and on the mechanisms operating within video resumes that impact applicant evaluation.

In this laboratory experiment we examined the effect of resume format (paper resume only, video resume only, or both) on applicant evaluation. Differences in applicant personality trait evaluation were found for extraversion and agreeableness when video resumes were reviewed compared to when only paper resumes were reviewed. In addition, social skill and mental capability ratings were lower when only video resumes were reviewed. These findings indicate that video resumes may result in different assessments of applicant personality and harsher evaluations of applicant skills and abilities than paper resumes. Human resource personnel are cautioned in the use of video resumes until more research has been completed.

Acculturative stress and relevant demographic variables, including immigration status, English skills, level of education, age, gender, country of origin, and years since immigration to the U. S. are examined along with their relationship to depressive symptoms. The 200 Arab-American and recent Arab immigrant participants ranged from age 60-92 and represented eight countries of origin. Most had limited fluency in English. Arabic versions of the Multi-dimensional Acculturative Stress Inventory (MASI) and Geriatric Depression Scale were administered. MASI and GDS results indicated greater degrees of acculturative stress and depression for those with a refugee or temporary resident status. More recent entry into the U.S. also predicted greater stress, while greater levels of education and English skills predicted lower levels of stress and depression. Composite stress levels and the nature of stress varied by country of origin. Although demographic variables were predictive of depression when examined separately, multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived acculturative stress, particularly pressure to learn English, provided a notable increment in prediction of depression over the demographic variables.

It was hypothesized that joror-defendant similarity would lead to greater leniency toward a criminal defendant when the evidence against that defendant was weak or inconclusive; but when evidence was strong, it was expected that this relationship would be reversed. In Study 1, religious similarity was found to be simply and positively related to evaluation of the defendant and leniency, a relationship unaffected by the strength of evidence. This pattern of results was attributed to (a) insufficiently strong evidence against the defendant and (b) the lack of anticipated jury deliberation, problems addressed in Study 2. In that study, when evidence was strong against the defendant, juror-defendant racial similarity did increase the likelihood of conviction, but only when jurors anticipated being in the racial minority in their jury. Implications of the findings for psychological theory and for voir dire were discussed.

This study examined the cultural generalizibility of the negative relationship between depression and self-enhancement. Japanese (n = 116) and American (n = 125) students completed the Zung (1965) Self-Rating Depression Scale and three measures of self-enhancement (i.e., the tendency to see oneself in a positive light). As expected, Japanese subjects were found to be more depressed and less self-serving than Americans. Negative correlations between depression and self-enhancement measures were obtained for both samples. Regression analyses of the relationships between measures indicated that sample differences in self-enhancement were explained largely by sample differences in depression. It is proposed that, relative to the Americans, Japanese students had a negative self-schema that led to higher depression and lower self-enhancement.

Racial bias appears to lead jurors in trials of stranger rape to convict Black defendants more readily and to sentence them more harshly than White defendants. It was hypothesized that jurors in an acquaintance rape case would demonstrate a different pattern of bias, based not only on the race of the defendant but also on the racial nature of the defendant-victim relationship. White American undergraduates read a trial transcript that established defendant-victim familiarity and sexual contact but was ambiguous about the victim's consent. Race of defendant and of victim (Black or White) were varied on a 2 × 2 design. The participants were asked to rate the guilt of the defendant and to recommend a sentence. Both Black and White defendants were rated as more guilty when the victim's race differed from their own.

The effects of information that disconfirmed negative stereotypes about blacks on evaluations of target individuals were examined. Black and white subjects rated black or white target individuals whose law school applications contained either moderately or strongly positive information. The gender of targets and subjects was also considered. Results indicated that black targets were evaluated more favorably than comparable white targets, but only by blacks. White subjects were more influenced by the target's gender than by his or her race, favoring male targets over equally qualified female targets.

The present investigation examined the role of familiarity in the categorization process. Subjects (N = 111) were asked to recall statements made by strong or weak ingroup (same sex) and outgroup (opposite sex) applicants for medical residency programs and to evaluate the target applicants. The category relevance of the social context was accentuated by using gender-like residency programs. There were no effects of category familiarity in recall, consistent with the finding of Taylor, Fiske, Etckoff, and Ruderman (1978). An ingroup polarization effect was obtained: Strong, same-sex applicants were evaluated more favorably and weak, same-sex applicants, more unfavorably than opposite-sex applicants. These results support Tesser's (1978) model of attitude polarization. Discrepancies between these findings and the outgroup polarization effects obtained by Linville and Jones (1980) are discussed in terms of the mediating influence of category relevance and outgroup novelty in the relationship between...

This chapter explores how group categorization processes can mediate the perceived applicability of one’s sense of justice to reward distribution decisions. Group categorization—that is, the tendency in people to categorize themselves and others into social aggregates, whereby the aggregates to which they belong are perceived as ingroups and those to which they do not belong are perceived as outgroups—has been shown to be relevant to a wide range of social psychological phenomena (Tajfel, 1978; Wilder, 1981). Empirical studies of group categorization, for the most part, have demonstrated ingroup-favorability; persons tend to react more positively to others whom they see as members of their ingroup than to those whom they see as belonging to outgroups (Brewer, 1979). Within this research tradition, there is a body of work (summarized in Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel & Turner, 1979; as well as elsewhere, e.g., Allen, 1982; Caddick, 1980) that has investigated the extent to which group categorization processes can affect reward allocation. Consistent with the notion of ingroup favorability bias, these studies have generated evidence that persons, when distributing rewards among persons in different group categories, will be more generous to in ingroup members, even though such allocations violate accepted norms of fairness.