An Examination of the Presence of Weight-Based Bias within the Structured Interview

Abstract

This study assessed whether overweight candidates, especially women, would be rated lower than equally qualified normal-weight candidates in a structured interview. The study also examined whether interactions of prior weight-based prejudice and weight similarity between raters and candidates would affect overall ratings. Two hundred forty six undergraduate students from a diverse mid-western university with generally moderate weight-based bias levels served as raters in the study. Contrary to previous research findings, significant evidence for weight-based discrimination was not found. There was very little variability between raters overall interview scores for both overweight and normal-weight candidates. The findings suggest that the structured interview process increased inter-rater reliability and limited the existing weight-based.