An In-Depth Look at Dispositional Reasoning and Interviewer Accuracy

Dispositional reasoning is defined as general reasoning about traits, behaviors, and situations. Although earlier accuracy studies found that it predicted interview judgment accuracy, they did not distinguish between its underlying components (i.e., trait induction, trait extrapolation, and trait contextualization). This drawback has hampered insight into the nature of the dispositional reasoning construct. Therefore, we use a componential approach to test if dispositional reasoning adheres to classical criteria for an intelligence. Results from 146 managerial interviewers who observed videotaped interviewees showed that the dispositional reasoning components had positive manifold and predicted interview accuracy. Moreover, they demonstrated discriminant validity with personality and incremental validity over cognitive ability in predicting interview accuracy. Together, findings suggest that dispositional reasoning broadly adheres to the classical criteria for an intelligence.