The psychology of sorority recruitment

[violetpretty]

Originally Posted by KDMafia

See I am not to sure about this. I believe that a lot can be learned in recruitment if the sorority members ask the right questions. Learning about part time jobs in high school and college, learning about leadership in their EC. You can find out about loyalty talking about family or high school friends, empathy in their current and past friendships or even connection to past pets. It's learning how to take the time you have and ask the right questions. I think it also helps you identify the ones who are taking sorority membership seriously. Recruitment shouldn't be treated as the elephant in the room. If sororities take the selection process seriously it will help the PNMs as well.

I think this also helps chapters identify which PNMs are interested in them as well. Someone who rolls her eyes when you ask her about experience volunteering or gives one word answers shows they are not interested in impressing you, while if you focus just on small talk can make it easier for the uninterested PNM so seem more engaged just based on the amount of effort they need to put forth.

Absolutely. This is one of the challenges a "popular" chapter faces during recruitment in the era of RFM. They essentially have their pick, but because they have to cut so many women early in recruitment, they have to know what they are looking for and how to determine if a PNM has those qualities. If all they're looking for is "cute" and "bubbly" that is their right to choose PNMs that way, but if they want more women with more substance, they must ask the right questions. You have to have all of your members on the same page about wanting certain things in PNMs and educate them how to steer conversations to be productive. Otherwise, you'll have a bunch of your members gushing about PNMs and they can't really give you concrete reasons why they'd be good members.

I do agree that cute girls with bubbly personalities tend to do better in recruitment, though. Social psychologists know that people who are attractive are more likely to be perceived positively, and unattractive people are more likely to be perceived negatively, even if you have an identical conversations. It's ingrained in our brains.