Abstract
The use of video-conference interviews (VIs) has increased substantially, especially with advances in technology and the emergence of COVID-19. Although prior research has suggested that VIs are associated with a lower perception of fairness by applicants and less favorable ratings by interviewers in contrast to face-to-face (FTF) interviews, the reasons for these differences remain inadequately understood. We postulate that applicants’ and interviewers’ perceptions of the other party’s social presence may mediate the relationships among the interview medium, applicants’ perceptions of fairness and interviewers’ ratings. We also explore the moderating roles of applicants’ nonverbal communication expectations and interviewers’ construal level in these mediated relationships. We conduct a one-factor experimental design involving 232 participants (116 applicants and 116 interviewers) and find that VIs lead to lower perceptions of fairness by applicants and lower ratings by interviewers through lower perceptions by applicants and interviewers of the other party’s social presence. Additionally, applicants’ expectations for nonverbal communication during interviews moderate the relationship between the interview media and applicants’ experience of social presence. Specifically, applicants with high expectations for nonverbal communication experience greater social presence and fairness in FTF interviews than in VIs. For applicants with low expectations of nonverbal communication, however, VIs and FTF interviews do not differ in terms of social presence or fairness perceptions, and the moderating effect of interviewers’ construal level is not significant. We discuss the implications of these results for increasing applicants’ perceptions of fairness and the efficacy of interview evaluations in job interviews. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-026-04017-3.