Can Virtual Reality Make Hiring Fairer?

Exploring the potential of anonymized VR interviews when hiring

Reviewed by Davia Sills

Key points

• In recruiting, anonymized resumés can improve fairness in initial stages but not in in-person interviews.
• Virtual reality (VR) allows for face-to-face interviews where physical appearance is masked.
• Research did not observe negative effects on interaction behavior in anonymized VR setups.
• Organizations may implement the technique on-site in standardized recruitment interviews.

In recent years, awareness has grown around biases in hiring processes, particularly those affecting women and people from minority groups. To promote a fairer playing field in which recruiters’ possible conscious or unconscious prejudices play a smaller role in decision-making, some countries and companies have, therefore, implemented partially anonymized application processes where identifying information is removed from resumés. Where discrimination was previously present, application anonymization was indeed found to often improve fairness when it came to selecting candidates for interviews (e.g., see Blommaert & Coenders, 2024).

Importantly, however, improvements in fairness regarding actual hiring outcomes were less tangible. The problem is obvious: While resumés can be anonymized, in-person interactions reveal physical traits that may impact recruiters’ perceptions in this final and decisive stage in the recruitment process.

To date, no widely accepted solution fully addresses this challenge. Live interviews can’t be entirely anonymized without sacrificing valuable interpersonal information, such as facial expressions, body language, and group dynamics. Switching to purely phone-based interviews, while anonymizing appearance, also removes these diagnostic cues that recruiters rely on to assess candidates.

One potential solution is using virtual reality (VR), which allows for realistic face-to-face interactions while maintaining a level of anonymity. With VR, applicants and recruiters could meet in a shared digital space using computer-generated avatars that mask physical appearances. Although VR technology enables lifelike recreations of individuals’ appearances (as demonstrated in an interaction between journalist Lex Fridman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg), it also allows participants to embody non-identifiable avatars, maintaining full facial expressions and body language without revealing real-world appearance.

While few applicants may currently own VR equipment, companies could provide VR setups for on-site interviews. Applicants would travel to the office, where they could experience the physical environment—perhaps meeting a few coworkers and exploring the workspace—before moving to a separate room to conduct the interview with recruiters in VR. This setup would allow for a controlled yet semi-anonymous interaction. Additional features like height normalization and voice modulation could further reduce identifying cues, creating an interview process where a candidate’s skills and responses take precedence over their appearance.

Understandably, some may worry that VR anonymity could disrupt natural conversation dynamics. In particular, anonymization could exert a socially disinhibiting effect on the interacting parties—as it was often observed in written communication on the internet (Suler, 2004)—triggering subtle but still somewhat socially inappropriate behaviors such as louder speaking, more frequent interrupting, or long eye contact. To explore this question, we conducted a study (Son & Rubo, 2024) with over 100 participants who interacted in VR in dyads, either embodying personalized avatars resembling their real appearance or using generic avatars for greater anonymity. Encouragingly, we found that interaction patterns in both conditions were consistent with face-to-face norms. It seems that the shared virtual space, combined with the ability to make eye contact, may be enough to preserve natural social balance, even under anonymous conditions.

While VR remains a niche in the consumer space, its applications for professional settings are expanding, and it’s already being used in training, team meetings, and more. Adopting VR for hiring could require some convincing, particularly among managers who may be hesitant about anonymization techniques (Blommaert & Coenders, 2024). However, VR could finally deliver on the promise of fair, unbiased recruitment processes by maintaining anonymity in the final and most crucial stage of hiring. For companies committed to fairness, VR could be the next step toward creating equal opportunities for all.