Resume padding: Bad for individuals, good for society?

Creatively enhancing a CV, known as “resume padding,” has the potential to cast the sender in a bad light. But can this “self-reported signaling” – the conveying of information that may or may not be true – ultimately have a positive effect in the grand scheme of things? A team of researchers thinks so.

What the researchers say: “If you wind up using resume padding to get a higher-level job that you’re not qualified for – and that job is really important, like the [U.S. Rep.] George Santos case – that’s not a good thing,” said the lead author, a professor of management.

But, he added, resume padding can ultimately have a positive effect – if the long-term result is decreased misrepresentation.

The new study was published in the American Economic Journal: Microeconomics.

It has long been believed that a person’s education level signaled a worker’s ability. This can lead to overinvestment in education from a societal standpoint – that is, more students getting higher-level degrees than is warranted based on the needs of the society.

“But if I introduce resume padding regarding the education level, that raises questions regarding the validity of the signal,” the lead author continued. “As a result, the reward for getting a higher-level degree goes down a little, and so does the investment in education.”

The researchers explored the idea of “self-reported signaling.” A CV is an example of self-reported signaling: Most of the information on it is not widely known, and the recipient expects it to be accurate and truthful. There are items that can be verified via investigation – education level, previous employment – and others that cannot, such as leadership qualities and work ethic. But any verification can be costly.

In their modeling, the researchers considered a single sender (job applicant) and a pool of identical receivers (hiring officers). The sender chooses an attribute (education level) that is not publicly known but can be verified, although at a potentially high cost in time and money.

Assumptions regarding the veracity of the resumes, the hiring officers’ willingness to verify the information, and the risk-benefit of dishonesty regarding education levels are factored into the model. Their modeling uncovered two major results:

• The possibility of resume padding reduces the return of investing in higher education. This is because, even if the claim of a higher education level is truthful, the possibility that it could be untruthful lowers the amount hiring officers are willing to pay; and
• The subsequent reduction in investments in education can “undo” the overinvestment typically associated with educational claims.

“There is the possibility,” the researchers said, “that all this misrepresentation just lowers the incentive of investing in education or other standard activities that serve as signals, which could have a positive effect on the economy.”

The researchers also applied this modeling to college admissions – particularly in the area of applicants’ self-reported extracurricular activities and leadership roles. Their modeling and analysis revealed that the possibility of misrepresentation reduces overinvestment in these types of activities and may actually have societal benefits.

“We typically think of lying as being unambiguously bad,” the authors wrote. “At the same time, however, we know that signaling results in socially needless distortions. If self-reports of actions serve as signals there can be social benefits as the misrepresentation reduces the signaling distortion.”

The lead author commented that the nonstop news regarding Santos’ misrepresenting his past could trigger a lessening of that type of behavior. “I would think that the stigma associated with being caught resume padding might be higher now, because of all the publicity,” told us. “I’m guessing it might, at the margins, slightly reduce the amount of resume padding.”

So, what? This is an interesting study, whether you agree with the conclusions or not.