ESCP Europe

Langue

English

Publication year

01/01/2022

Organizations are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment and selection to enhance their hiring, but little research has been conducted on how and when having an AI recruiter influences recruitment outcomes. Basing our hypotheses on signaling theory and theories of algorithm aversion, with four experimental studies we tested (a) whether perceptions of the organization's (reduced) warmth and (increased) competence mediate the effect of the recruiter's identity (as AI rather than human) on organization attraction, and (b) the applicants' technophilia as a moderator of these indirect effects. We found consistent support for the hypotheses about the warmth pathway, but not for the ones about the competence pathway. With these findings, we extend recruitment research by applying signaling theory to human-machine interactions in the recruitment process. We also extend signaling theory and research by identifying AI recruiter as a signal that job applicants use to infer an organization's characteristics, which influence their attraction to the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]