Exploring demographic biases in professionals’ credibility judgements and their impact on perceptions of validity scale cut-offs

This study examined whether evaluee race and gender influence professionals’ credibility judgments and perceptions of applicable cutoff values for validity scales used in symptom validity assessment. Professionals involved in psychological or psychiatric assessment (N = 138) read a vignette describing a referral case in which the client's race (Black or White) and gender (male or female) were manipulated. Each case included indeterminate-range validity scale scores from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-3 (MMPI-3; English-language participants) or the MMPI-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; other-language participants). Professionals judged the overall credibility of the case presentation and selected the cutoff values they considered indicative of a noncredible profile. Results showed that neither credibility judgments nor selected cutoff values were influenced by the evaluee's race or gender. These findings underscore the importance of further understanding the interplay of demographic biases in psychological assessment to improve objectivity and fairness in detecting negative response bias.