Robots in Personnel Selection: The Role of Interviewer’s Competence Ratings and Interviewee’s Fairness Perception

The study explores whether the introduction of robots in job interviews influences candidate’s assessment and hiring recommendation, and applicant’s fairness perceptions. Competence ratings is examined using Howard and Ferris’ (Journal of Applied Social Psychology 26(2):112–136, 1996) model of job interview in a social and situational context, and fairness perceptions is examined using Gilliland’s (Academy of Management Review 18:694–734, 1993) organizational justice model. Attitudes toward technology and core self-evaluations (CSE) are also included as potential moderators. A within-subjects study with 21 participants experiencing human, avatar, and robot-mediated interviews as both interviewers and interviewees was conducted. Preliminary findings suggest that while traditional interview settings (human-human) are still preferred, there were no significant differences in competence ratings, and fairness perceptions across the three interview conditions. There is, however, a small significant difference in hiring recommendations. Attitudes toward technology and CSE did not play a significant role in the robot and avatar settings.