Retorio talent personality assessments

Reporters from Bayerischer Rundfunk (German Public Broadcasting) have discovered that an algorithm owned by Munich-based start-up Retorio responds differently to the same candidate in different outfits, such as glasses and headscarves.

Retorio analyses video to determine personality attributes based on the 'Ocean' Big Five Model, which breaks down scores into 'openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.'

But the company's personality assessment system produced significantly different scores when analysing a woman wearing spectacles and a headscarf, a darkened video of a Black woman, or when a bookshelf was added in the background.

Retorio responded by saying the difference in results was due to the fact that the system had been trained based on how a chosen group of human recruiters perceived jobseekers and their personalities, leading the algorithm to reproduce the feelings and biases of those humans.

On its website, Retorio describes its personality product as 'the world's most innovative video-based personality assessment.'