Virtual Reality to Study Job Interview Anxiety: Evaluation of Virtual Environments
Empirical evidence has verified that anxiety is an inherent part of the interview process, and in today’s stressful work environment it also has the potential of interfering with the ultimate goal of the interview: to recruit the most suitable person for
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Abstract Empirical evidence has verified that anxiety is an inherent part of the interview process, and in today’s stressful work environment it also has the potential of interfering with the ultimate goal of the interview: to recruit the most suitable person for the job and organizational fit. The objective of this study was to validate three virtual environments: (i) a business waiting room; (ii) an office with the presence of plants and a window view of nature (nature-like surroundings); and (iii) an office without nature elements. Hence, this study aims to validate the experimental and neutral virtual environments that will be used for further studies. A between-subject design was considered, and 66 university students participated voluntarily. Results evidenced the waiting room received unanimous and neutral ratings among conditions. The office with nature-like surroundings was more positively rated comparatively to the office without such surroundings. Keywords Job interview anxiety Validation Interior design
Virtual reality
Virtual environments
T. Borges E. Vilar (&) P. Noriega F. Rebelo Ergonomics Laboratory, FMH, Lisbon University, Estrada da Costa, 1499-002 Cruz Quebrada, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] T. Borges e-mail: [email protected] P. Noriega e-mail: [email protected] F. Rebelo e-mail: [email protected] E. Vilar P. Noriega F. Rebelo CIAUD—Research Centre for Architecture, Urban Planning and Design, Rua Sá Nogueira, Alto da Ajuda, 1349-055 Lisbon, Portugal S. Ramos ISCTE—Institute of Lisbon, Avenida das Forças Armadas, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 F. Rebelo and M. Soares (eds.), Advances in Ergonomics in Design, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 485, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41983-1_3
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1 Introduction Empirical evidence shows that in new and ambiguous social situations, observers’ judgments and perceptions likely rely on environmental material objects [1]. Thus, in job interviews where the candidate has no control over the social interaction, nor does he know the inside of the company’s built-in environment, we suggest candidates also rely greatly on the physical environment. Typical workplace objects (e.g., boardroom tables, briefcases, files and suits) increase cognitive accessibility, or prime, individuals into perceiving and behaving in a more competitive than collaborative manner [1]. Scholars identified that this behavior tended to occur more in contexts that were ambiguous and lacked explicit normative demands [1]. Given that the job interview is characteristically a social ambiguous context in an organizational setting, it is possible the candidate unconsciously relies on the physical environment. Meanwhile, other researches have greatly emphasized that environments with exposure to nature portray higher aesthetic responses and more positive feelings of well-being and comfort than environments without such elements [2, 3]. Inspired by previous
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