Does Defining More Anchors on Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales Increase Rater Accuracy in Employment Interviews?

Abstract

While the use of behaviorally anchored rating scales for employee selection has been researched in the past, little research has been conducted regarding how many anchors should include behavioral descriptions on BARS. This study sought to determine if including five examples on BARS would increase rater accuracy when compared to BARS with three examples. Participants were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Participants viewed videos of a person interviewing for a professor position at a university and then rated the respondent’s answers. The results demonstrated that BARS with five examples result in less over and under ratings on employment interviews when compared to three example BARS. There were no other significant differences in accuracy between three example BARS and five example BARS.