> I don't care for popular people so, in fact, my bias might be the other direction
It's not about someone being popular and you saying it just makes me more certain you don't realize the trap. People can have well honed social skills and not act like your standard popularity contest wining politician.
The most carefully honed social skills in the world won't help somebody plausibly answer a question like "What is the data type of this variable?" or "Show me the line where the null pointer dereference is happening."
They can add all the smiles and chuckles and other social niceties they want, but at the end of the day, whether they come up with the right answer or not, their logic will tell you pretty clearly whether they know what they're talking about.
That's the point of a technical interview: to distinguish those who think (or pretend) they can code sufficiently well to do the job, from those who can't.
It's not about someone being popular and you saying it just makes me more certain you don't realize the trap. People can have well honed social skills and not act like your standard popularity contest wining politician.