Alcohol and interviews

I found the results of this paper, which suggests that managers interviewing job candidates over dinner implicitly penalize those who order wine, a bit surprising, and am inclined to think that the story is really something else.

In particular, it would be interesting to see this replicated in the UK, where the culture of drinking at lunch [sic] still has a tiny bit of life left. And it would be interesting to replicate it in parts of the US with lots of Baptists and not much wine, e.g. Alabama, and with lots of wine and not so many Baptists, e.g. Northern California.

It would also be interesting to see whether the choice of wine or beer matters as a function of the interviewers own preferences and as a function of the job characteristics. Also, what if the problem is that the interviewee orders the house Merlot, which signals a lack of taste or knowledge, rather than the wine per se?

Having said all this, I actually notice at work lunches when people order regular coke instead of diet coke and infer something about their weight loss intentions.

Bonus points to Reuters for actually linking to the paper. Points off for writing about a paper not yet subject to peer review.

Hat tip: Charlie Brown