Here’s Looking at You: Does Eye Contact in Video Interviews Affect How Applicants are Perceived and Evaluated?

Synchronous as well as asynchronous video interviews have become increasingly common as a supplement to or replacement for face-to-face interviews for selection purposes. Recent research suggests that impairments of eye contact in video interviews might contribute to lower interview performance ratings in these interviews because establishing eye contact in them is only possible by looking into the camera, which, however, impedes the perception of the conversation partner’s emotions and reactions. Therefore, we experimentally tested the effect of eye contact in two studies using asynchronous video interviews. Results showed that a vertical deviation of eye contact led neither to lower interview performance ratings nor to more negative perceptions of applicants’ warmth and competence whereas a horizontal deviation of eye contact negatively affected perceptions of the hirability of applicants. Furthermore, deviations in eye contact led to lower perceived social presence which turned out to be a mediator for lower performance ratings. Taken together, results show that restrictions in eye contact are no immediate driving factors for lower interview performance ratings but that communication quality might still suffer from decreased social presence which can ultimately lead to negative outcomes for interviewees.