The role of fear of negative evaluation in interview anxiety and social‐evaluative workplace anxiety

Abstract

We investigated the consequences of interview and social-evaluative workplace anxiety on job performance, and whether these two anxieties share a common antecedent-fear of negative evaluation. Job applicants (n = 128) completed a survey following their interview and halfway through their work term; supervisory performance ratings were collected at the end of the work term. Fear of negative evaluation was positively correlated with both interview anxiety and social-evaluative workplace anxiety. The correlation between interview anxiety and job performance was near zero, as was the correlation between social-evaluative workplace anxiety and job performance; these relations were not moderated by the social-evaluative nature of the job. This study suggests that anxious interviewees and employees perform as well as their less anxious counterparts, even in social-evaluative jobs.

The Impact of Interviewees’ Anxious Nonverbal Behavior on Interview Performance Ratings

“…Consequently, at least one mechanism underlying the negative relation between interview anxiety and interview performance ratings is interviewers’ perceptions of interviewees’ nonverbal behavior. These results, combined with past studies that found that interview anxiety is not related to job performance (Schneider et al, 2019; Zhang et al, 2021), suggest that interview anxiety may be a source of error in interview performance ratings.…”

“…Notably, interview anxiety is not predictive of later job performance (Schneider et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2021), which suggests that a highly anxious interviewee may receive a low interview rating, despite having the potential to be a good performer if hired. Consequently, interview anxiety is problematic not only for individuals but also for organizations who pass on qualifiedyet anxiousinterviewees, in favor of less suitable ones.…”

Negative and positive antecedents of intention to resume hotel consumption in new normal settings in Malaysia: insight from three psychological theories

“…So, people who are very sensitive to the fear of being judged negatively are often more likely to be nervous in public interactions where they might be judged by others, like the intention to resume hotel consumption. Zhang et al (2022) looked at how the fear of getting a bad review affects interview anxiety and social-evaluative work anxiety.…”

Reactions of applicants with disabilities to technology‐enabled recruitment and selection: A research agenda

“…Indeed, the social pressure related to a live interaction with another person, especially one that would be in a position to judge the applicant's performance, can trigger social anxiety. These social‐evaluative concerns are particularly salient in a selection context, and indeed fear of negative evaluation is correlated with interview anxiety (Zhang, Powell, & Bonaccio, 2022).…”