Lying in LinkedIn
When one thinks of the term “networking” it is most often associated with interacting with others in order to find job opportunities, or to secure a position. You “network” with family, friends, friends of friends and family, and even acquaintances of friends or family to move your resume to the top of the pile, or to put in a good word for you. One social networking site that moves this type of interacting into the online sphere is LinkedIn. Like other social networking sites, LinkedIn intends to connect users of similar interests and backgrounds. However, its main intention is to allow users to “network” in the professional realm, and assist users in making useful connections that could potentially lead to jobs. As a user, you create a profile (essentially a detailed resume with different pre-determined categories) and have the option to “connect” with other colleagues, or professionals in fields that interest you.
As college students, our professional networks are still relatively small, having only worked at on average two or three internships. Similar to “friending” in Facebook I still feel uncomfortable connecting with individuals I might not necessarily know, in which case, LinkedIn does not really provide any additional benefit, other than seeing how my friends have spent their summer and what areas of campus they are involved in. I also find it rather annoying that I constantly have to delete LinkedIn updates that flood my inbox. However, in the long run, it is very useful in expanding one’s online network and connecting with professionals you might not have otherwise connected with.
In one of my classes last year, Deception in the Digital Age, we looked at a lot of research on deception in online spheres. Some questions we asked were: “Are people more or less likely to lie online?” and “What are they more likely to lie about?” One research article that we looked at compared subjects who gave traditional resumes (not posted online) to those who posted resumes in LinkedIn. One is always weary to exaggerate in resumes. One can benefit from exaggerating as it makes them a more desirable candidate. However, if it one is caught embellishing their resume, even the smallest amount, it could hurt their chances of securing a job, and tarnish their reputation.
The study, conducted by Cornell professor Jeff Hancock and Cornell grad student, found that those who submitted traditional resumes were more likely to lie about past job responsibilities, and those that submitted resumes to LinkedIn were more likely to lie about their interests. Those who submitted resumes on LinkedIn perceived the cost of lying about job responsibilities higher for there was more of an opportunity for multiple people to verify the data. On the other hand, interests are more subjective and hard to catch someone if they are lying about it. Therefore the perceived cost of lying about interests on LinkedIn was lower.
LinkedIn is one of many social networking sites meant to serve a specific niche and purpose. It is very interesting to see how moving a typical action, such as networking, to an online sphere, can affect it’s outcome (i.e. how people are more likely to lie in different aspects of their resume than they normally would).
To read more of the summary you can check out this link to the research article: http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/0/0/4/1/pages300410/p300410-1.php