Reinforcing stereotypes they believe are true despite lack of evidence.
Like how these same people swore up and down that millenials were lazy, greedy, worthless members of society not 10 years prior. Wasnt true then, isnt true now, but I spent my working years getting an earful of "examples" of why millenials were awful workers.
That doesn’t mean 1-in-5 bring parents. It means 1-in-5 interviewers have seen someone bring in a parent. If an interviewer has 500 interviews and 1 brings in a parent, that interviewer is one of the five who has seen a parent at an interview. Even though it was only 1 in 500 interviews for them, they’re still 1-in-5 interviewers.
Hell, it could even be the same fucking parent at every interview, if it’s a small enough industry. Maybe that same college grad applied to all of the local jobs in the industry (because of course they did; it’s what they studied for) and so all the interviewers in that part of the industry have seen a parent at an interview. It’s still only the 1 parent, but all of the interviewers in the area have seen them, so they all report that they’ve seen a recent college grad bring a parent.