There’s one job interview question that many hiring experts use to catch liars, and even Elon Musk has admitted to using it.
Musk, founder of Space X and CEO of Tesla, admitted in 2017 that he asks the same question to every candidate he interviews.
‘Tell me about some of the toughest problems you worked on and how you solved them.’
He told the 2017 World Government Summit that he uses the question to weed out any liars, and research studies on interview techniques back up his method.
‘Asymmetric Information Management’ (AIM) is an interview technique designed to provide the interviewee with a clear means of demonstrating that they are truly telling the truth about their experience by providing detailed information.
There’s one job interview question that many hiring experts use to catch liars, and even Elon Musk has admitted to using it.
A study published in the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition in December 2020 found several approaches to detecting liars based on job interview techniques.
If an applicant can answer Musk’s open-ended question with a specific, detailed response, they’re more than likely telling the truth.
“Small details are the lifeblood of forensic investigations and can provide investigators with facts to verify and witnesses to question,” Cody Porter, one of the study’s authors, wrote in an article.
“If they provide longer and more detailed statements about the fact of interest, then the investigator will be better able to detect whether they are telling the truth or lying,” Porter explained. “Conversely, liars want to hide their guilt.”
‘This means that they are more likely to strategically withhold information in response to the AIM method.
‘Their assumption here is that providing more information will make it easier for the investigator to detect their lie, so instead they provide less information.’
Musk’s hiring process is unique. Instead of looking for a college diploma or even a high school diploma, when it comes to hiring new staff, he looks for “evidence of exceptional ability.”
“If there is a track record of exceptional achievement, then that is likely to continue into the future,” he said.
That’s why Musk asks every interviewee the same question: because it’s easy to lie on a CV, but harder to come up with a detailed lie on the spot.