The Use of Twitter Profiles to Assess Personality and Hireability 1

The use of social media screening in the hiring process is becoming a common method by HR practitioners, but has yet to be thoroughly studied by academics. The authors of this study used 152 active Twitter users, and examined the validity and reliability of rater based personality and hireability assessments that solely use Twitter profiles. Additionally, the authors of the study extend socioanalytic theory to encompass the construct of narcissism and operate in the cyber context of social media. Six qualified raters conducted other-rated personality and hireability assessments using Twitter profiles, and the results demonstrated sufficient inter-rater reliability and internal consistency. Results showed that all correlations between self-reported and other-rated personality were statistically significant and ranged from 0.19 for conscientiousness to 0.54 for openness. The three other-rated personality traits that significantly correlated with hireability were conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability, indicating that these traits determined whether the HR professionals used in this study found the candidates worthy of further consideration.