Liking and Other Reactions After a Get-Acquainted Interaction: A Comparison of Continuous Face-to-Face Interaction versus Interaction that Progresses from Text Messages to Face-to-Face

Abstract

Increasingly, people are making initial connections through social networking and online dating sites. However, we have limited information about how the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) compares to face-to-face (FtF) for making initial social connections. The purpose of the present study was to compare liking and other affiliative outcomes of dyads who become acquainted in an interaction that progressed from CMC, to Skype, and finally to FtF versus dyads who became acquainted entirely FtF. The dyads engaged in a three-segment, structured self-disclosure task to become acquainted and were randomly assigned to either the continuous FtF condition (n = 48) or the CMC to FtF condition (n = 40). Participants’ reactions were assessed after each segment of interaction. Comparisons after the first segment revealed that those who interacted over CMC-text reported less enjoyment of the interaction, in addition to less liking of, closeness with, and perceived similarity to their discussion partner than those who interacted FtF. However, participants in the CMC to FtF condition increased in their positive reactions over the course of the interaction to a greater degree than did those in the continuous FtF condition, and consequently were able to catch up to them by the end of the final segment of interaction. Overall, our study suggests that although initial communication through online-text may elicit less positive impressions of an interaction partner relative to FtF, these effects may be mitigated upon partners moving quickly to FtF or through other rich channels (video).

Keywords:

• Communication
• Communication Technology
• Modality Switching
• Relationship Formation
• Social Interaction

Notes

^[1] This sample size was after eliminating two participants who were paired with a confederate (one of the experimenters) when the other scheduled participant did not show up, four dyads who reported knowing each other, and two dyads in which one member was an outlier on age (much older than the other partner).

^[2] The random assignment was done through drawing a slip of paper out of an envelope that initially included equal numbers of slips for each condition. During the last wave (semester) of data collection, however, there were more dyads in the continuous FtF condition because inadvertently it was discovered that the pile of slips had not been adequately shuffled. As a result, there were more continuous FtF dyads (n = 48) than CMC to FtF dyads (n = 40) in the final sample, after the exclusions referred to in footnote 1.

^[3] The extra minute was added because the experimenters had the impression that dyads needed another minute to get through more of the introductory questions.

^[4] It was decided to ask about the romantic compatibility for a friend rather than for the participant because many of the dyads were of the same sex.

^[5] An analysis was conducted to examine whether sex composition of the dyad (1 = female–female; 2 = all others) moderated the effect of condition on the outcome variables. The condition x sex composition interaction was not significant for any of the outcome variables. In addition, the inclusion of sex composition did not change the significance of the main effect of the condition, with the exception of that for perceived similarity, which became only near significant (p < 0.09). A main effect of sex composition was found for perceived similarity and liking, in which female–female dyads reported higher levels of these outcome variables than the “other” group (consisting mostly of male–female dyads). However, because sex composition of the dyad did not moderate the main results, sex composition will not be considered further.

^[6] The main effect for experimental condition (continuous FtF vs. CMC to FtF) was found to be nonsignificant for four of the five reaction variables. The exception was for awkwardness; however, this main effect was qualified by the interaction effect discussed next.