Year: 2009
Type: other
Abstract: Outline, and ConclusionsChapter 1 15 friendships and lowest in online friendships.There was no difference in perceived similarity between mixed-mode and offline friendships.Furthermore, results showed that perceived similarity affected the quality of friendship in all three types of friendship.The largest effect occurred for online friendships, followed by mixed-mode friendships, and offline friendships.Third, results showed that social attraction was the highest in offline friendships, followed by mixed-mode friendships, and online friendships.The effect of social attraction on friendship quality was the highest for offline friendships, followed by mixed-mode friendships, and online friendships. ConclusionsThis dissertation with its focus on the link between online communication on the one hand and interpersonal attraction and friendships on the other had two main goals.First, it aimed at an examination of the underlying processes between CMC and interpersonal attraction and friendship formation.Second, it focused on contemporary, cue-richer CMC applications, instead of only comparing face-to-face communication with text-based CMC settings.This dissertation provides various new insights into the effects of online communication on interpersonal attraction and friendships.Because each of the four studies in this dissertation is self-contained and has its own conclusions, we now only discuss the main conclusions concerning interpersonal attraction and friendships. Interpersonal AttractionTo begin with, online communication, or CMC in general, has a positive effect on interpersonal attraction.The most important underlying mechanisms in this relationship are self-disclosure and question asking.We found that both these interactive uncertainty reduction strategies are more often used in CMC than in face-to-face communication.The CMC-induced increased use of both strategies stimulates interpersonal attraction.As far as self-disclosure is concerned, this dissertation makes clear that it is not the amount of self-disclosure, but rather the depth of self-disclosure, that settings.However, because CMC continues to be an interesting area of work with many challenges -new applications keep on emerging -we should carry on doing research about CMC and interpersonal relationships.References
Author: Antheunis, M.L.
Institution: University of Amsterdam
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2141580417