This research challenges the traditional dichotomy between technology and the humanities by examining how Artificial Intelligence (AI) reconfigures the socio-cultural landscape of job recruitment. While AI is often criticized for lacking the "high-context" communication central to human interaction, this study proposes a dual-dimensional framework: high-context communication as both a linguistic-cultural convention and a socio-cultural dimension of social practice. By analyzing data from a randomized questionnaire across diverse age groups and social sectors in Mainland China, the study investigates how AI involvement moderates perceptions of fairness. The findings reveal a complex paradox that complicates the common concern regarding AI’s communicative limitations. While high-context communication typically enhances fairness perceptions in human-led interviews, AI involvement is also positively associated with perceived fairness. Crucially, when interviewees’ perception of AI’s high-context processing capability is high, or when the need for high-context communication is salient, AI involvement significantly enhances the rated fairness of the interview.
This suggests that AI does not necessarily weaken high-context communication; rather, it facilitates it by moderating the structural unfairness of localized practices like guanxi (connections) and neiding (internal hiring). By limiting human-centric social biases, AI is perceived as a "fair" arbiter that balances technological mediation with humanistic values. Ultimately, this study breaks the technology-humanities binary, demonstrating how human perceptions and practices in AI usage reveal diverse possibilities for human agency complicated by specific socio-contextual situations in contemporary societies.

Authors:
Hongwenjing Li, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Ho Man Tang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Yanxin Liao, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Yangzhuolin Long, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Ms Alyssa Ll is a communications specialist currently pursuing a Master's degree in Corporate Communications at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

Bookmark