Applicant Fairness Perceptions of a Robot-Mediated Job Interview: A Video Vignette-Based Experimental Survey

Abstract

It is well-established in the literature that biases (e. g., related to body size, ethnicity, race etc.) can occur during the employment interview and that applicants' fairness perceptions related to selection procedures can influence attitudes, intentions, and behaviors toward the recruiting organization. This study explores how social robotics may affect this situation. Using an online, video vignette-based experimental survey ( n = 235), the study examines applicant fairness perceptions of two types of job interviews: a face-to-face and a robot-mediated interview. To reduce the risk of socially desirable responses, desensitize the topic, and detect any inconsistencies in the respondents' reactions to vignette scenarios, the study employs a first-person and a third-person perspective. In the robot-mediated interview, two teleoperated robots are used as fair proxies for the applicant and the interviewer, thus providing symmetrical visual anonymity unlike prior research that relied on asymmetrical anonymity, in which only one party was anonymized. This design is intended to eliminate visual cues that typically cause implicit biases and discrimination of applicants, but also to prevent biasing the interviewer's assessment through impression management tactics typically used by applicants. We hypothesize that fairness perception (i.e., procedural fairness and interactional fairness) and behavioral intentions (i.e., intentions of job acceptance, reapplication intentions, and recommendation intentions) will be higher in a robot-mediated job interview than in a face-to-face job interview, and that this effect will be stronger for introvert applicants. The study shows, contrary to our expectations, that the face-to-face interview is perceived as fairer, and that the applicant's personality (introvert vs. extravert) does not affect this perception. We discuss this finding and its implications, and address avenues for future research.

Can I show my skills? Affective responses to artificial intelligence in the recruitment process

“…Furthermore, we found support for our hypothesized mediation of the relationship between AIsupport and organizational attractiveness via the opportunity to perform and emotional creepiness. These results corroborate previous findings of the use of AI in asynchronous telephone and video interviews and negative fairness perceptions (Acikgoz et al 2020;Langer et al 2020;Nørskov et al 2020).…”

“…Even meta-analytical results corroborate that candidates respond more positively toward faceto-face interviews rather than to technology-mediated job interviews (Blacksmith et al 2016). Moreover, asynchronous video interviews are less favored than synchronous video interviews (Acikgoz et al 2020;Suen et al 2019) and actual applicants perceive asynchronous video interviews as rather unfair (Hiemstra et al 2019;Nørskov et al 2020).…”

“…First, while past research has focused on applicant reactions towards the decision agent (i.e., human or algorithm; e.g., Lee 2018), companies might be reluctant to deliver their decisions about candidates to an algorithm or AI completely. Second, there is a focus on specific applications of ADM in recruitment and selection, such as applicant screening (Bauer et al 2006) or video interviews (e.g., Acikgoz et al 2020;Langer et al 2019;McColl and Michelotti 2019;Mirowska 2020;Nørskov et al 2020), while knowledge is scarce about applicant acceptance of AI systems in different steps of the recruitment process (Stone et al 2013). From a company's perspective, it is important to impress candidates as well as to retain them throughout the different steps of the recruitment process.…”

Applicant Reactions to Digital Selection Methods: A Signaling Perspective on Innovativeness and Procedural Justice

“…Research investigating differences in applicants' reactions to technology-mediated interviews in comparison to traditional interviews consistently reveals that applicants generally react more favorably to face-to-face interviews (Bauer et al, 2004;Blacksmith et al, 2016;Chapman et al, 2003). More specifically, studies show that applicants perceive interviews with high degrees of digitalization, such as asynchronous videos or robot-mediated interviews, as less fair than traditional face-to-face interviews (Hiemstra et al, 2019;Nørskov et al, 2020). Even the inclusion of information explaining the procedure of the selection method does not necessarily lead to higher fairness perceptions for interview methods with high degrees of digitalization (Langer et al, 2018).…”

Development and initial validation of a scale for the situational recognition of the basic psychological needs

“…Recently, research underlined the importance of situational approaches on how BPNs are being satisfied ( Escriva-Boulley et al., 2021b ; Parrisius et al., 2021 ). Consequently, offering a relevant video vignette may have advantages like authenticity, realism and engagement for the participants (e.g., Nørskov et al., 2020 ; Rodríguez-Muñiz et al., 2018 ; Shen, 2010 ). Of course, the use of video vignettes may have drawbacks as well, such as a possible participants' detachment from the characters shown in the video (for more, see Erfanian et al., 2020 ).…”