Realistic Job Previews: Information Processing and the Accuracy of Self‐Assessment

Two studies were undertaken examining issues relevant to the usefulness of Realistic Job Previews (RJPs) as an aid to self‐selection. The first study (N = 49) examined the validity of the implication underlying RJPs that, regardless of prior preference, people will seek more information about a task or job they expect to perform than about one that they do not expect to perform. Results were supportive and this was so for both positive and negative information. The second study (N = 96) examined whether RJPs served to increase the accuracy of self‐assessment, also an implied benefit of RJPs. Realistic Job Previews did result in more accurate self‐assessment, but only in a more difficult and attentionally demanding task. Implications for the role of RJPs and self‐assessment in a broadened social process model of selection (Herriot 1988,1989) are discussed. 1995 Australian Psychological Society