Abstract

ABSTRACT Interpersonal mediated communication research has demonstrated that exchanging cues during online interactions can change message receivers’ perception of the senders in socially desirable ways. Building from previous self-transformative work, this work explores how perceptions of others are also shaped by the messages we write evaluating others. More specifically, the research examines the effects of sending different types of evaluative messages on attitude, social attraction, physical attraction, and task attraction toward a hypothetical CMC partner. The first experiment (N = 193) prompted participants to view a post of a video game player and then provide a confirmatory or disconfirmatory evaluation or no evaluation. Results indicated that providing positive evaluations caused a positive change in attitude toward the target, while providing negative evaluations negatively affected attitude but did not necessarily affect social, task, or physical attraction. The second experiment (N = 129) conceptually replicated the first experiment’s design in the context of an Instagram post. The results generally replicated those of the first study but additionally produced significant results on social attraction. Providing an evaluation caused significant changes in the receivers’ perception of attitude and social attraction, with the direction of change corresponding with the valence of the evaluations given to the target.

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