The measurement equivalence of personality measures across high- and low-stake test taking settings

•The current study draws on two large Romanian samples.•We analyzed the goodness of fit of a reputed five-factor measure in high and low-stake test taking context.•We estimated several levels of measurement invariance (configural, metric, scalar) across the high and low-stake samples.•The differences between the Geomin loading matrices are explored.•We outline a series of practical implications of non-invariant functioning across the high and low-stake test taking contexts.

Traditionally, organizational psychologists rely on personality measures in order to make personnel selection decisions. However, the extent to which the measurement of personality traits is varies across high-stake test-taking context is not entirely understood. Drawing on a Romanian dataset, we explored different levels of invariance between high and low stake contexts for a celebrated five-factor personality measure. Results revealed that the measurement of five-factor personality traits is non-equivalent across high and low test-taking contexts. Additionally, significant differences in latent means were observed for Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness.