Effect of camera placement and interviewer's gender on a candidate's perceived employment suitability

Abstract

Asynchronous video interviewing is increasingly used in personnel selection, but research on it is lagging. McColl and Michelotti (2019) found that candidates who placed their camera below eye level caused recruiters to feel “looked down” upon. Additionally, research shows that gestures are essential for making personality attributions, which may not be seen when the camera is near to the candidate. This paper investigates the effect of camera placement on interview ratings, hypothesising that (1) ratings will be poorer when the camera is below eye level than when at eye level, (2) ratings will differ depending on whether the camera is far or near, and (3) ratings will be even poorer when the camera is below eye level and near, than when at eye level and far. The media richness theory (MRT) (Daft & Lengel, 1986) and signalling theory (ST) (Rynes, 1991; Rynes et al., 1991) are used to support these hypothesis. This paper also explores the effect of the interviewer's gender. Results revealed that a camera below eye level and far from the candidate leads to poorer ratings towards the male candidate when the interviewer was a male. Additionally, male interviewers rated the male candidate more harshly than females when the camera was below eye level. Lastly, our findings contradict our last hypothesis, showing that a camera below eye level and far from the candidate results in poorer ratings when the interviewer was male. The implications for theories brought in to explain our findings and future research were discussed.