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. 2022 Jul 6:13:895997.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.895997. eCollection 2022.

Should I Trust the Artificial Intelligence to Recruit? Recruiters' Perceptions and Behavior When Faced With Algorithm-Based Recommendation Systems During Resume Screening

Alain Lacroux  1 , Christelle Martin-Lacroux  2
Affiliations

Should I Trust the Artificial Intelligence to Recruit? Recruiters' Perceptions and Behavior When Faced With Algorithm-Based Recommendation Systems During Resume Screening

Alain Lacroux et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Resume screening assisted by decision support systems that incorporate artificial intelligence is currently undergoing a strong development in many organizations, raising technical, managerial, legal, and ethical issues. The purpose of the present paper is to better understand the reactions of recruiters when they are offered algorithm-based recommendations during resume screening. Two polarized attitudes have been identified in the literature on users' reactions to algorithm-based recommendations: algorithm aversion, which reflects a general distrust and preference for human recommendations; and automation bias, which corresponds to an overconfidence in the decisions or recommendations made by algorithmic decision support systems (ADSS). Drawing on results obtained in the field of automated decision support areas, we make the general hypothesis that recruiters trust human experts more than ADSS, because they distrust algorithms for subjective decisions such as recruitment. An experiment on resume screening was conducted on a sample of professionals (N = 694) involved in the screening of job applications. They were asked to study a job offer, then evaluate two fictitious resumes in a 2 × 2 factorial design with manipulation of the type of recommendation (no recommendation/algorithmic recommendation/human expert recommendation) and of the consistency of the recommendations (consistent vs. inconsistent recommendation). Our results support the general hypothesis of preference for human recommendations: recruiters exhibit a higher level of trust toward human expert recommendations compared with algorithmic recommendations. However, we also found that recommendation's consistence has a differential and unexpected impact on decisions: in the presence of an inconsistent algorithmic recommendation, recruiters favored the unsuitable over the suitable resume. Our results also show that specific personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, and self-confidence) are associated with a differential use of algorithmic recommendations. Implications for research and HR policies are finally discussed.

Keywords: algorithm aversion; algorithmic decision support systems; artificial intelligence; resume screening; trust.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Dynamic of trust in human–ADSS interaction.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overview of experimental procedure.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Influence of recommendations type and consistence on resume score.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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