A study referenced in the article “Liar! Liar! (When Stakes are Higher): Understanding How the Overclaiming Technique Can be Used to Detect Faking in Personnel Selection” demonstrates that job applicants who overclaim in the hiring process are more likely to engage in deviant behaviors once hired. 294 individuals participated in the study, who were invited to apply for a competitive project looking to hire people who were knowledgeable about politics. The MTurk workers took a questionnaire asking them to rate their knowledge in certain areas related to politics, however it actually was an overclaiming questionnaire (OCQ) designed to measure their level of faking. After this initial phase, participants were instructed that they would be earning payment for every opinion they answered, which included both obscure topics and bogus items. The study revealed that those who had more overclaiming in their OCQ were also more likely to give an opinion about one of the fake topics and also gave more opinions on the obscure items.
