Forced-choice pre-employment personality assessment: Construct validity and resistance to faking

•Novel construct validity evidence for the forced-choice measure, the ESQ•Job applicants less likely to fake on the ESQ due to motivation factors•ESQ appears resistant to contamination of response distortion, GMA, and dispositional intelligence

Concerns about faking on pre-employment personality assessment are well founded as respondents often dissimulate. This potentially affects the accuracy of hiring decisions, predictive validity of assessment scores, and defensibility of using personality assessment for high-stakes decision making. We use Jackson's forced-choice instrument and provide novel construct validity evidence. Moreover, our laboratory and field evidence suggests that although respondents are able to elevate test scores in similar magnitudes when instructed, they do not elevate their scores as much when using the forced-choice format.