To Answer or to Refuse? Investigating the Effect of Refusal to Answer Privacy-Invasive Question on Applicants' Perceived Hireability

Job applicants often find themselves stuck in a dilemma when asked about their private information during interviews. In line with the consensus of both the privacy literature and conventional wisdom, applicants tend to answer such questions as they worry about the negative effects of rejection and are motivated to enhance their employment opportunities. In this research, we challenge this belief. Drawing on person–environment fit theory, we argue that for privacy-sensitive jobs, interviewers tend to perceive applicants as having a higher level of person–job fit if they refuse to answer privacy-related questions. We test these propositions with three experiments among experienced interviewers from the United States (Study 1) and China (Studies 2 and 3). Across all three studies, we find that when applying for jobs with high privacy concerns, applicants are perceived to match such jobs better if they refuse to answer privacy-invasive questions. We discuss the implications of these results for privacy in the selection process.