The MMPI-2 L scale, reporting uncommon virtue, and predicting police performance

The present study investigated the use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-2 L (Lie) scale in the preemployment selection of police officers. In a prior article, Weiss, Davis, Rostow, and Kinsman (2003) found that high L scale scores are associated with a number of performance problems in law enforcement officers. These investigators recommended a L scale raw score cutoff of 8 when making hiring decisions. The present study sought to explore the usefulness of this recommendation by analyzing data from 4348 officers who had taken the MMPI-2 as a condition of preemployment and had follow-up data on performance provided by their supervisors. Results indicated that officers with L scale raw scores of 8 or higher had significantly more performance problems than those who had scores of 7 or below. Similar results were obtained when cut points of 7 and 9 were used. These results were robust insofar as they remained significant when other factors potentially related to the L scale, particularly level of education, ethnicity, and scores on the 10 MMPI-2 Clinical Scales, were controlled for in the analyses. Implications of these findings for police psychological evaluations are discussed.