Your Mic Could Be Sabotaging Your Career: The Hidden Bias of Zoom Calls

A new Yale study reveals that a tinny-sounding microphone during video conferences can significantly impact how people perceive a speaker's intelligence, credibility, and attractiveness, even affecting job prospects. Researchers conducted experiments demonstrating that poor audio quality, independent of the message content, leads to negative judgments. This highlights a potential source of unconscious bias and discrimination, especially considering the correlation between microphone quality and socioeconomic status. The study emphasizes the importance of testing microphone quality before video interviews to avoid unintentional career setbacks.