Highly automated job interviews: Acceptance under the influence of stakes

Abstract

Technological advancements allow the automation of every part of job interviews (information acquisition, information analysis, action selection, action implementation) resulting in highly automated interviews. Efficiency advantages exist, but it is unclear how people react to such interviews (and whether reactions depend on the stakes involved). Participants (N = 123) in a 2 (highly automated, videoconference) × 2 (high‐stakes, low‐stakes situation) experiment watched and assessed videos depicting a highly automated interview for high‐stakes (selection) and low‐stakes (training) situations or an equivalent videoconference interview. Automated high‐stakes interviews led to ambiguity and less perceived controllability. Additionally, highly automated interviews diminished overall acceptance through lower social presence and fairness. To conclude, people seem to react negatively to highly automated interviews and acceptance seems to vary based on the stakes.