P re sen ted by many recruitment agencies recognized by AFNOR (NF X50-767) as a tool for decision support professional graphology is purported to assess the psychological characteristics of a candidate from the observation of his handwriting.
Currently, this technique is mainly used in France, where an investigation in 1999 from 62 French firms found that 95% of French companies use to select their prospective hires, 50% consistently. Outside France, the use of graphology is marginal. So what is graphology? Is this a valid method of assessing personality? Do you have interest in using for your recruitment? Details.
What is graphology?
Graphology must be distinguished from the expertise entries, which is an investigative technique of assigning a manuscript written in his writer, either for forensic identification of the anonymous author of a writing assignment or for historical manuscripts. This technique should not be confused with graphology, which is not an audit but a psychological interpretation.
Based on the premise that writing is the expression of personality, handwriting is a technique that aims to deduce the psychological characteristics of an individual's personality, from the observation and the interpretation of his writing manuscript.
Graphologists examine features such as tilt of the characters, the size of each letter, the form of letters, the pressure up and down the line, word spacing, letter spacing, or even the location of the signing ...
Beyond the handwritten letter, the Groupement des graphologists councils France ( GGCF ) states that graphologists based on biographical information (age, sex, educational level) and on the curriculum vitae of the candidate to establish a "profile handwriting "of the latter.
Today, handwriting is taught in private schools. Graphologists professional associations organize examinations, issuing diplomas and campaigning for official recognition of them from government.
Is this a valid method of assessing personality?
Although graphology is a technique recognized by AFNOR ( NF X50-767 ) as an aid the business decision has its place among the techniques used in the recruitment process, handwriting is not an exact science, much less a valid method of assessing personality.
Many researchers are interested in the study of handwriting to establish the existence of a clear link between handwriting and personality, but without success. Indeed, no evidence of scientific validity of graphology has been found.
A study on behalf of the Dutch Society of Industrial Psychology considered opinion of 2,250 and 6,000 graphologists another control group. The Dutch researchers found that judgments handwriting, to a large extent, were slightly more often correct than wrong, but concluded that in terms of assessing an individual "... Graphology is a method for diagnosing highly questionable and probably worthless ". (Jansen 1973).
Another 1989 analysis, 17 studies conducted earlier on the validity of graphology as a tool in recruitment and staffing, has shown that even sometimes the lack of correlations obtained by graphologists is largely attributable to the contents of the manuscripts of the candidates (Neter & Ben-Shakhar 1989).
Finally, the study Illusory Correlations in Graphological , led by King and Koehler in 2000, establishes that deductions made between the shape or characteristics of a writing and psychological traits, were in reality of illusory correlations. According to the authors, handwriting is a form of illusion rather convincingly, that makes this technique is quite popular nowadays.
Have you interest to use graphology in your recruitment?
Since no scientific study has succeeded in proving the ability of graphology to assess personality and job performance of candidates, and that the rates charged by graphologists vary greatly depending on the " quality" of the analysis (the tariffs for a handwriting analysis varies between 75 and 300 euros HT), the use this technique seems to be totally useless in the context recruitment.
Therefore, as stated Laurent Rodriguez, Recruitment Manager at Lactalis Group on its Blog if " a recruiter or firm offers a graphology, take this with humor (laughing bitterly) and save yourself! Fear of being hired by a company run by followers of quackery and other PsychoGourou .
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