Ground Zero in Workplace Investigations: Advanced Interview Techniques ACHRO/EEO FALL 2013 INSTITUTE Amy Oppenheimer Amy Oppenheimer Workplace Investigations & Training, Oakland, California Keith Rohman Public Interest Investigations, Inc. Los Angeles, California
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Ground Zero in WorkplaceInvestigations:
Advanced Interview TechniquesACHRO/EEO FALL 2013 INSTITUTE
Amy OppenheimerAmy Oppenheimer
Workplace Investigations & Training,
Oakland, California
Keith Rohman
Public Interest Investigations, Inc.
Los Angeles, California
• The interview is where it all happens; it isground zero in the investigation.
• Subjects first rate themselves on how theyview their own biases.
• Subjects then take the IAT.• Subjects then take the IAT.
• There is a significant difference between thetwo ratings.
• People have far more bias than they realize.See: www.implicit.harvard.edu
Greenwald, Anthony G. & Krieger, Linda Hamilton, Implicit Bias: ScientificFoundations, 94 California Law Review 945 (2006).
Implications for hiring:Names on Resumes
Identical resumes were submitted in response tohelp wanted ads. The only differences were thenamesnames
Some were submitted with traditionally AfricanAmerican names (e.g. Tamika Jones) – others withtraditionally white names (e.g. Emily Ryan).
The white names received 50 percent moreresponses across the board.Bertrand, M. and Mullainathan, Sendhil, Are Emily and Greg More Employablethan Lakisha and Jamal, A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination, TheAmerican Economic Review, 94(4), 1-31 (2004)
Implications for hiring:Names on Resumes
Raters were asked to evaluate recent PhDgraduates for an assistant professor position. Theresumes were the same but for half having afemale name and half having a male name.female name and half having a male name.
Result? 79% deemed the male was worthy ofhire and 49% deemed the female worthy of hire.
And there were 4X as many “doubt rating”comments for the female applicant (e.g. – “Iwould need to see proof of scholarship.”)
Implications for hiring:Nonverbal Behavior and Race
White interviewers were videotaped interviewingwhite and black job applicants. They:
– Spoke to and smiled more at the white applicants.– Spoke to and smiled more at the white applicants.
– Hesitated more and made more speech errorswhen speaking to the black applicant (leading tothe interviewee making speech errors due to“mirroring”).
– Sat further back, leaned away, gave shorterinterviews with the black applicants.
Nonverbal Behavior and Race
When white interviewers were trained toact towards the white applicants the waythey had towards the black applicants, thethey had towards the black applicants, thewhite applicants performed worse, weremore uncomfortable and judged the whiteinterviewer to be less friendly.
Word, Carl O., Zanna, Mark P. and Cooper, Joel, The Nonverbal Mediation of Self-FulfillingProphecies in Interracial Interaction, 10 J. Experimental Soc. Psychol. 109 (1974).McConnell, A. R., & Leibold, J. M. (2001). Relations Between the Implicit Association Test,Explicit Racial Attitudes, and Discriminatory Behavior, Journal of Experimental SocialPsychology, 37, 435–442.
Confirmation Bias
• Tendency to bolster ahypothesis by seekingconsistent evidence whileminimizing inconsistentminimizing inconsistentevidence
• Done unconsciously
• Impacts how we interpretinformation
Confirmation Bias
Fingerprint experts were lesslikely to find a match when factsprovided about the case made aprovided about the case made amatch seem less probable.
Dror, I. E., Charlton, D., & Person, A. E., Contextual Information RendersExperts Vulnerable to Making Erroneous Identifications, Forensic ScienceInternational (2006)
Confirmation Bias
• Participants were asked to form a hypothesis of guiltbefore reviewing all the evidence in a case.
• Doing so caused them to look for reasons to find thisperson guilty, even when evidence tending to exoneratethe individual was introduced.the individual was introduced.
• Some participants were then asked to explain why theinitial hypothesis might be wrong.
• Others were asked to generate additional suspects.
• Those who named a suspect and considered why hemight be innocent showed less confirmation bias thanthose asked to name two additional suspects.
Reducing Confirmation BiasConclusions
Those who were asked early in the case to name asuspect and state why he might be guilty showed agreater tendency to confirm that hypothesis.However this was counteracted by explaining whyHowever this was counteracted by explaining whythis might be wrong.
O’Brien, Barbara, Prime Suspect: An Examination of Factors That
Aggravate and Counteract Confirmation Bias in Criminal Investigations,Psychology, Public Policy, and Law (2009).
How do we reduce bias?
• Getting comfortable with a wide range of people
• Finding a way to establish rapport with everyone
• Really listening to the response
• Thinking through different possible findings• Thinking through different possible findings
• Getting a second (or third) opinion
How can our interviewing techniquereduce bias?
• Using open-ended neutral questions
– Who
– What
– Where
– How
– And sometimes – Why?
Studies show investigators who ask open-ended questionsget more accurate information.
How can our interviewing techniquereduce bias?
• Avoiding telegraphing what we are thinking
– Yes, they can tell
– It impacts the interview
– And our first impressions may change over time
Acting as if . . .
By the end of the interview, do they know what you arethinking? If you answer that question no – and obtainedall the information you need - you’ve had a successfulinterview.
• Goal of interview technique– Participant-centered process
• Maximizing information obtained
• Minimizing negative fallout from investigation• Minimizing negative fallout from investigation
– The right environment• Let the witness pick the spot, if appropriate