Abstract
Most research on the effects of disclosure on close relationships have been done using offline disclosure. However, disclosure done online has disparate features and thus its effects on relationships may also differ. In five studies and using primes emulating Facebook timelines and messages, we compared the effects of disclosure depth on intimacy and satisfaction in online vs. offline contexts, in romantic vs. friend relationships, and with differing content (self- vs. partner-focused). After demonstrating consistent differences, we examined one mechanism that accounted for the differential effects of online vs. offline disclosure in romantic relationships: perceived inclusivity of the recipients. Results revealed that greater disclosure was associated with higher relational intimacy and satisfaction when done offline (Studies 1 and 4), and lower intimacy and satisfaction when done online (Studies 1–4), in both the discloser (Study 1) and his or her partner (Studies 2–4). The negative association between online disclosure and intimacy was present in romantic relationships, but not in friendships (Study 1). Importantly, this effect only appeared when perceived inclusivity of recipients was high (Study 4). Focusing the online disclosure content on the partner/relationship dissipated its negative effects (Study 5). Together, these studies extend further knowledge on how the effects of disclosure are contextualized, and suggest that disclosure done publicly online may be detrimental to romantic relationships.
Highlights
In today’s modern world, with the ubiquity of the Internet [1] and the immense upsurge in the availability and usage of communication technology, many social interactions and even fullblown relationships are taking place partially or completely online
We investigated whether the association between type of disclosure and relational outcomes would depend on another contextual factor: The type of relationship, namely friend vs. romantic relationship
We provided evidence that online disclosure has different associations with relational outcomes compared to offline disclosure and identified an underlying mechanism that accounted for the differential effects
Summary
In today’s modern world, with the ubiquity of the Internet [1] and the immense upsurge in the availability and usage of communication technology, many social interactions and even fullblown relationships are taking place partially or completely online. Many relational processes are taking place online, including self-disclosure—the sharing of information about oneself with another person [5] (for the sake of brevity, we refer to self-disclosure as “disclosure” in the document). Effects of online self-disclosure on relationship intimacy and satisfaction the growth of online disclosure. The growth reflects both in breadth—the amount of information, time spent communicating, and topic variety, and in depth—the relevance of the topic to the innermost self, with some topics being more personal than others [6,7,8]. Because of this, understanding the role online disclosure plays in relationships is highly important
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