The importance of gaze control during online interviews

This study investigated the effect of an interviewee’s gaze on how they are assessed by interviewers. An online experiment was conducted in which managers assessed the credibility (competence, trustworthiness, goodwill) of a confederate’s one-way interview recording. During the recording, the confederate either looked directly into the camera while giving their elevator speech or looked down toward the question prompt (which is also where an interviewer’s face would appear during a synchronous virtual interview). The data indicated that while trustworthiness and goodwill were not influenced by gaze, the amount of competence an interviewee had was affected by gaze. The interviewee was assessed to be more competent when they looked directly into the camera.