Personality traits and hiring: Exploring employer preferences through a vignette study in Japan

Although noncognitive skills and personality traits are widely recognized as crucial for understanding social inequality, their effects on labor market outcomes remain underexplored. This study investigates how employers evaluate personality traits of job seekers, focusing on Japan, where the widespread adoption of the Synthetic Personality Inventory (SPI)—a screening tool that combines cognitive ability and personality assessments—has made these traits visible from the early stages of the hiring process. Using a vignette experiment, the study finds that when personality traits are visible, employers use this information to decide whom to interview, underscoring the growing importance of personality traits in hiring decisions. However, elite companies are not necessarily more likely than non-elite companies to rely on such traits in the screening process. Instead, they continue to emphasize traditional signals such as educational background. These findings suggest that educational expansion and technological advancements may reshape how employers assess job candidates, potentially leading to an even greater emphasis on personality-based screening. Nonetheless, educational credentials remain a key prerequisite for access to the upper tiers of the labor market, regardless of the visibility of applicants’ cognitive and noncognitive skills.