Social Psychology Online: What?s the situation? Preview Contemporary situations Differences between online and face-to-face communication Getting to know someone in an online situation Dating in an online situation Contemporary situations? Most research conducted in face-to-face Increase in communication online How might this change the situation? Nonverbal cues Anonymity Internet vs. Face-to-face Physical appearance less important Greater control over interactions Physical distance less important Anonymity Differences (McKenna & Bargh, 2000; Okdie & Guadagno, 2008) Reduced Physical Appearance Face-to-face Important in first encounters (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972) Online Reduced importance (McKenna & Bargh; Okdie & Guadagno, 2008) Greater Control Over Time and Pace of Interaction Face-to-face Limited control over time and pace of interaction No backspace Online Greater control over time and pace of interaction Backspace and rethink your text Reduced Importance of Physical Distance Face-to-face Greater impact on social relationships (Festinger, Schacter, & Back, 1950) Online Less important (McKenna & Bargh, 2000; Okdie & Guadagno, 2008) Anonymity Face-to-face Increased aggression (Silke, 2003; Zimbardo, 1969) Increased helping (Schwartz & Gottlieb, 1980) Online Increased hostile behavior Reduced discrimination (Morton, Zettelmeyer, & Silvia-Risso, 2003) Getting to Know You Online How might meeting someone for the first time online differ from meeting them face-to-face? Do you think that you could get a good feel for someone's personality by meeting them for only 10 minutes online? Method Filled out personality measures Randomly assigned to interact with partner online or face-to-face Made judgments of partners Experiment 1 Accurate Impression? Individuals were more accurate in judging their partner?s personality when they interacted FtF rather than CMC Experiment 1 (Okdie, Guadagno, Bernieri, Geers, & Mclarney-Vesotski, under review) Characteristics of The Interaction (Okdie, Guadagno, Bernieri, Geers, & Mclarney-Vesotski, under review) Experiment 1 Self-focus (Okdie, Guadagno, Bernieri, Geers, & Mclarney-Vesotski, under review) Experiment 1 Results Face-to-face interactions: More enjoyable More positive ratings of partner Higher feelings of similarity Online interactions: Increased self-focus Experiment 1 Online Dating Create Profile View profile Short message to initiate contact If contact is reciprocated: Anonymous email conversation begins Contact information exchanged Phone contact Face-to-face meeting Research Question Online Interactions Differ From FTF These differences may allow for more self-presentation (People want to make a good impression) Will participants self-present more when they expect to meet a potential date via email rather than FTF? Experiment 2 (Guadagno, Okdie, Kruse, under review) Method Phase 1: Personality test Phase 2: Online dating profile including personality test Experiment 2 (Guadagno, Okdie, Kruse, under review) Experimental conditions ...Within a week, we will arrange for you to meet [face-to-face/email/no sentence] with a potential date... Experiment 2 (Guadagno, Okdie, Kruse, under review) Positive Personality Traits Gender by Condition by Time, Wilk?s ?= .917, F (3, 152) = 4.33, p = .006, ?p2 = .083 (Guadagno, Okdie, Kruse, under review) Experiment 2 Negative Traits Gender by Condition by Time, Wilk?s ?= .942, F (3,152) = 2.95, p = .035, ?p2 = .058 (Guadagno, Okdie, Kruse, under review) Experiment 2 Attractiveness Gender by Time Controlling for Objective Attractiveness, Wilk?s ?= .968, F (1, 139)= 4.54, p= .035, ?p2= .032 (Guadagno, Okdie, Kruse, under review) Experiment 2 What?s the situation? Men are more likely than women to self-present in online dating contexts Is the increased self-presentation bad? Experiment 2 What Have We Learned? There are differences between communicating online versus face-to-face More opportunities to self-present online Face-to-face and online behavior are both good and bad
