Researchers wanted to investigate how long it took interviewers to make a decision to hire an employee through a job interview - AQA - A-Level Psychology - Question 2 - 2019 - Paper 3

From the data in Table 4, a clear conclusion can be drawn that the most common contributing factor for a quick decision in hiring an employee was the experience of the interviewer. This is suggested by the tally counts, showing that many interviewers identified their experience as a significant factor, thus indicating the influence of interviewer confidence on decision-making.

1. The interviewers may have had different interpretations of the time it took to make the hiring decision, leading to inconsistencies in their reporting. This subjectivity could skew the data, as some might underestimate their decision time while others overestimate it.

2. The interviewers' personal biases, such as favoritism or preconceived notions about candidates, could influence their self-reported reasons for making quick decisions. This means their reasoning might not accurately reflect objective factors, affecting the reliability of the conclusions drawn from the study.

The researchers could have used standardized, structured interviews with the same questions for all interviewers to increase reliability. This would ensure that each interviewer was assessed under similar conditions, making it easier to compare their responses objectively and minimizing variability in the data.