The role of personality, psychopathy, and previous experience with assessment in intentions to fake in psychological testing

Much research has addressed the possible antecedents of faking behaviour, however these approaches tend to be theoretical rather than empirical in nature. This study empirically examined for the first time the role of personality and previous experience with psychological testing in intentions to fake on psychological assessment. Participants (N=232 community members, n=175 females, n=58 males) completed the HEXACO-60 measure of personality, a measure of primary and secondary psychopathy, provided information on whether they had experience in psychological assessment, and rated their intentions to fake in future psychological testing. Analysis via hierarchical multiple regression indicated lower levels of conscientiousness, higher levels of psychopathy, and previous experience with psychological testing significantly predicted intentions to engage in faking in future assessment. In addition, lower levels of secondary psychopathy were also associated with intentions, however inspection of zero-order correlations suggested this influence was via a suppressor effect. These results provide insight into the mechanisms predicting intentions to fake in psychological testing, which may subsequently inform recruiting or diagnostic practices.