Trust Me, I Know Them: Assessing Interpersonal Bias in Surgery Residency Interviews

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Residency Selection
• Applicant Assessment Bias

Background:

• Residency selection uses objective and subjective data, with interviews assessing traits like insight and communication.
• Interviews carry potential for bias; structured formats may reduce some bias, but familiarity can still influence assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify interviewer bias stemming from pre-interview knowledge of general surgery residency applicants.
• To compare file review and interview scores for applicants known versus unknown to interviewers.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 169 general surgery residency applicants' file review and interview scores (2019-2021).
• Applicants categorized as 'home,' 'known' (elective), or 'unknown.'
• Kruskal-Wallis H test and Spearman's rank-order correlation (r_s) used for score comparisons and correlations.

Main Results:

• A statistically significant difference (P=.01) in median interview scores was observed across home, known, and unknown applicant groups.
• Positive correlations between file review and interview scores increased with applicant familiarity (r_s=0.15 unknown, 0.36 known, 0.55 home).

Conclusions:

• Increased applicant familiarity correlates with higher agreement between file review and interview scores.
• The current interview structure may not sufficiently mitigate inherent biases in residency selection.