When meeting job applicants, employers often discount the influence of varying situations on applicants' behaviors and presume that what they observe applicants do and say reflects the applicants' enduring personality traits. this most clearly contributes to?

This is the interviewer illusion. This usually occurs when the interviewer over-relies on "gut instinct" when it comes to making a hiring decision. This can be due to prior experiences in hiring leading to preconceptions about certain types of applicants and the behaviors they will likely exhibit once working for the company.