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).