affinity bias

A 2009 poll conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management revealed that 54% of HR managers base their final hiring decisions on “chemistry” and 30% of HR professionals make the “not-to-hire decision” in 15 minutes of first meeting the job candidate, whereas 28% reach the same conclusion in just 5 minutes.

Here are four reasons why this is a bad idea:

1. Potential for discriminatory actions/lawsuits
2. When you assume you can make a “you-know-what” out of you and me
3. Hiring your likeness compromises your primary job – getting work done through others
4. If everyone on your team is the same, there won't be any complimentary skills or diversity, which the best teams have

An analysis of 120 job interviews over the course of two years at elite firms in areas of banking, consulting, and Big Law suggested that the most common mechanism by which a candidate was evaluated was their similarity to their interviewer. The findings attribute this similarity effect to three key factors:

• Question of Fit: Beyond fitting in with the firm, candidates must appeal to individual interviewers and pass what one hiring professional described as the Stranded In the Airport Test: “Would I want to be stuck in an airport in a snowstorm with them? And if I’m on a business trip for two days and I have to have dinner with them, is this the kind of person I enjoy hanging with?”
• Looking Glass Merit: People unconsciously define merit in a self-validating way.
• Excitement: Interviewers get excited about candidates who share their own passions and are likelier to serve as their champion in the final hiring-committee deliberations.

Researchers have proposed several different reasons why similarity might increase liking:

• Consensual validation: Shared attitudes make us feel more confident in our own skin.
• Cognitive evaluation: If a person has something in common with us, that makes us feel positively about them, because we feel positively about ourselves and we then assume they have other positive characteristics.
• Certainty of being liked: Someone with a lot in common with us is more likely to like us and we’re more likely to like them if we think they’ll like us.
• Fun and enjoyable interactions: It's just more fun to hang out with someone when you have a lot in common.
• Self-expansion opportunity: Even though a dissimilar person would be more likely to provide new knowledge and experiences, research has shown people are more likely to see self-expansion opportunities when interacting with someone similar to them.

One study found that merit was not something evaluators could determine solely from a candidates’ resume, but rather something they felt. “Gut,” or personal emotional responses to candidates, was a crucial way they evaluated and compared candidates. Many likened the interview process to dating, arguing that it could not be boiled down to reason or objective measures alone. “You meet a lot of people and then sometimes there’s just chemistry. You just know it in your gut. We try to make it ‘objective’ by having trainings to tell us what to ask and what not to ask and by having evaluations, but ultimately it’s just something you feel.”