Photo/Illutration A student participant focuses on his monitor in a study about where to look during virtual job interviews. What a candidate chooses to look at can potentially cost them the position, regardless of their abilities and qualifications.

Job-seekers who maintain eye contact with their webcam instead of the interviewer on their monitor during online interviews are more likely to secure the position, a new study showed.

The experiment to gauge the impact of where people look during virtual job interviews was conducted by a group led by linguistics professor Noriko Yamane and Masahiro Shinya, associate professor of sports science, at Hiroshima University’s Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Since webcams are typically built-in or placed at the top of computer monitors, interviewees naturally break eye contact when their gaze shifts to focus on the interviewer's face.

The research group honed in on this slight shift to see its effect on how an employer perceives a potential hire.

Mock interviews were conducted with six male and six female students over two recording sessions. During these, the students delivered prepareded speeches that lasted around a minute to one minute and 30 seconds.

In the first session they looked at the camera and during the following session they focused on the screen.

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A study at Hiroshima University’s Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences found that maintaining eye contact with the webcam during an online interview can positively impact an interviewer's perception.

The speeches were then evaluated by 38 workers in the corporate sphere who ranged in age from their 20s to 60s. Evaluators watched four videos for each of the three patterns: making eye contact with the webcam, looking at the screen and audio only.

The videos were judged based on six criteria that included the speaker's ability to connect, their social appropriateness and general job qualifications.

As a result, focusing on the camera resulted in higher scores across all criteria compared to the recordings where students looked at the monitor.

However, there was no difference in evaluation when comparing scores for audio-only interviews and the students looking at the camera.

“Most job-seekers meticulously prepare for interviews, considering content and practicing delivery. But despite this, they often overlook the importance of eye contact,” Yamane said. “This study highlights how eye contact impacts the evaluation process during an interview.”

She points out that even excellent candidates may be overlooked in interviews if they do not make eye contact.

The study also showed a potential gender bias in evaluations.

The experiment found that female evaluators judged those who gazed downward more harshly than male evaluators, particularly on social appropriateness and their ability to establish a connection.

Furthermore, compared to their male counterparts, the female interviewees' lack of eye contact may have contributed to more critical assessments in terms of connecting with interviewers.

“Women may be more sensitive to whether or not eye contact is being made,” Shinya said. “It might be beneficial to ensure that there is a balanced representation of male and female interviewers.”

The study was published online in the Scientific Reports journal on May 31.

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