A Pilot Study Exploring Social Validity Ratings of Social Profiles for College Students

ABSTRACT

Nuhu and Rapp identified three profiles undergraduates displayed during social interactions. We evaluated the social validity of these three profiles in two studies. In Study 1 we presented video exemplars of speakers representing each profile to undergraduate participants and asked them to rate the speaker in respect to various statements. Results showed that one profile was rated significantly different than the other two profiles on all but one statement. In Study 2 we further evaluated the role of eye contact in the profile that participants rated differently in Study 1. Results from Study 2 showed that a speaker engaging in low eye contact was rated lower than a speaker engaging in either a validated or high level of eye contact. Likewise, participants with self-reported high social competency provided more negative ratings of a speaker who displayed low eye contact than participants with self-reported Moderate and Low social competency.

KEYWORDS:

• Eye contact
• social skills
• social validity

Acknowldegement

We thank Lydia Lindsey and Lindsey Wilson for their help in creating the videos.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website

Notes

^a This process required multiple “takes.”

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.