Applying and interviewing for a faculty position without intent of accepting position Is it ever a good idea to apply (and interview) to a faculty position at an institute if you know for certain (or with very high probability) that you are not going to accept a position there.

Possible advantages are:


Networking and letting people hear about your work.
Practice for later interviews.
Leverage: If a top institute offers you a position, that could be used to improve negotiating position with other institutes that you are interested in.


Is this something which is frowned upon? On one hand, I am guessing that departments wouldn't want to waste their time and money on a candidate that will not accept a position. But on the other hand it might be acceptable if the faculty are interested in hearing/talking with the candidate anyway.

If this is acceptable (or if it is not but someone still recommends it from the candidate's perspective), should the candidate give the impression that they are enthusiastic about the institution? (of course I realize the interests of the candidate might be different than those of the institution)
Please don't do this- you'll only be wasting the time of the search committee members.  Furthermore, you'll be doing something that is dishonest, and you do should not get into the habit of lying to people.  

If it becomes apparent early in the search process that you aren't truly interested in the position then the committee will probably not invite you for an on-campus interview.  If you actually are invited for an on-campus interview, then there's a good chance that it will become apparent during the interview that you really aren't interested in the position.  If you feign interest and do get an on-campus interview and then get an offer but reject that offer, then you'll have left a bad impression with the faculty in that department which will effect your relations with them in the future.  

The ways in which this can hurt the candidate are fairly limited, so the reality is that people can get away with this if they want to.  However, that doesn't make it right.