Comparing Forced-Choice and Single-Stimulus Personality Scores on a Level Playing Field: A Meta-Analysis of Psychometric Properties and Susceptibility to Faking

Forced-choice (FC) personality assessments have shown potential in mitigating the effects of faking. Yet despite increased attention and usage, there exist gaps in understanding the psychometric properties of FC assessments, and particularly when compared to traditional single-stimulus (SS) measures. The present study conducted a series of meta-analyses comparing the psychometric properties of FC and SS assessments after placing them on an equal playing field-by restricting to only studies that examined matched assessments of each format, and thus, avoiding the extraneous confound of using comparisons from different contexts (Sackett, 2021). Matched FC and SS assessments were compared in terms of criterion-related validity and susceptibility to faking in terms of mean shifts and validity attenuation. Additionally, the correlation between FC and SS scores was examined to help establish construct validity evidence. Results showed that matched FC and SS scores exhibit strong correlations with one another (? = .69), though correlations weakened when the FC measure was faked (? = .59) versus when both measures were taken honestly (? = .73). Average scores increased from honest to faked samples for both FC (d = .41) and SS scores (d = .75), though the effect was more pronounced for SS measures and with larger effects for context-desirable traits (FC d = .61, SS d = .99). Criterion-related validity was similar between matched FC and SS measures overall. However, when considering validity in faking contexts, FC scores exhibited greater validity than SS measures. Thus, although FC measures are not completely immune to faking, they exhibit meaningful benefits over SS measures in contexts of faking.

Automated summary

Forced-choice (FC) personality assessments have shown potential in mitigating the effects of faking. The present study conducted meta-analyses to compare the psychometric properties of FC and single-stimulus (SS) assessments and found that FC scores exhibit stronger correlations between matched FC and SS assessments. However, faking weakened the correlations, with FC measures showing greater validity than SS measures in faking contexts. Overall, FC measures provide meaningful benefits over SS measures in situations of faking.