Would You like to Be My Facebook Friend?

Abstract

This research seeks to understand how people respond to demographic factors and different types of Facebook profile. Using a 2 × 3 × 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design, the research explores the relationship between gender of a fictitious Facebook account (female, male), attraction levels of the profile photo (attractive, normal and default), education status (university, default) and relationship status (in a relationship, default). Additionally, this process has been applied in both field research (Study 1) and laboratory (Study 2). A beauty survey was applied to determine the profile photos to be used in these fictitious accounts. Friendship requests were sent to participants in the two different environments (field and lab) by fictitious Facebook accounts, and results were monitored and analyzed. Whilst some research has been carried out on online friendship, no study exists that involves the role of the environment. The results of this study indicate that the environment plays an important role in friendship acceptance behavior. Another important finding was that the gender of participants is the most significant determinant in friendship acceptance behavior in both field and laboratory. However, the relationship between class and income levels of participants and behavior of accepting friendship request was not significant. Contrary to expectations, this study did not find a significant relation between friending behavior of participants and fictitious Facebook dimensions of gender, profile photos, education status and relationship status.