Abstract
Self-report personality and integrity tests have been used increasingly in recent years, which may make them a target of test coaching. However, relatively little is known about the effects of coaching on these types of tests. Extending previous research (Alliger, Lilienfeld, & Mitchell, 1996), we investigated the susceptibility of personality-based and overt integrity tests to coaching. Results showed that test takers who were coached on how to present a favorable impression had no real advantage in terms of their integrity test scores over those who were instructed to fake good without being coached on how to respond. However, although coaching had little effect on integrity test scores, coached test takers were able to fake a good impression while largely avoiding endorsement of unlikely virtues items. Thus, test coaching can undermine the use of unlikely virtues scales for identifying test takers who distort their responses.