Catalina L. Toma

Self-Affirmation Underlies Facebook Use

Social network sites, such as Facebook, have acquired an unprecedented following, yet it is unknown what makes them so attractive to users. Here we propose that these sites’ popularity can be understood through the fulfillment of ego needs. We use self-affirmation theory to hypothesize why and when people spend time on their online profiles. Study 1 shows that Facebook profiles are self-affirming in the sense of satisfying users’ need for self-worth and self-integrity. Study 2 shows that Facebook users gravitate toward their online profiles after receiving a blow to the ego, in an unconscious effort to repair their perceptions of self-worth. In addition to illuminating some of the psychological factors that underlie Facebook use, the results provide an important extension to self-affirmation theory by clarifying how self-affirmation operates in people’s everyday environments.

Profile as promise: A framework for conceptualizing veracity in online dating self-presentations:

This research explores how users conceptualize misrepresentation (their own and others’) in a specific genre of online self-presentation: the online dating profile. Using qualitative data collected from 37 online dating participants, we explore user understandings of self-presentational practices, specifically how discrepancies between one’s online profile and offline presentation are constructed, assessed, and justified. Based on our analysis, we propose the profile as promise framework as an analytic lens that captures user understandings about profile-based representation through a qualitative analysis of their retrospective reflections.

Looks and Lies: The Role of Physical Attractiveness in Online Dating Self-Presentation and Deception

This study examines the role of online daters’ physical attractiveness in their profile self-presentation and, in particular, their use of deception. Sixty-nine online daters identified the deceptions in their online dating profiles and had their photograph taken in the lab. Independent judges rated the online daters’ physical attractiveness. Results show that the lower online daters’ attractiveness, the more likely they were to enhance their profile photographs and lie about their physical descriptors (height, weight, age). The association between attractiveness and deception did not extend to profile elements unrelated to their physical appearance (e.g., income, occupation), suggesting that their deceptions were limited and strategic. Results are discussed in terms of (a) evolutionary theories about the importance of physical attractiveness in the dating realm and (b) the technological affordances that allow online daters to engage in selective self-presentation.

Affirming the self through online profiles: beneficial effects of social networking sites

Self-affirmation is the process of bringing to awareness important aspects of the self, such as values, goals, and treasured characteristics. When affirmed, individuals are more open-minded and less defensive. This study examines whether social networking tools, such as Facebook, have self-affirming value. Participants were asked to either spend time on their own Facebook profiles, or on a strangers profile. Afterwards, they were given negative feedback on a task. Participants who spent time on their own profiles were more accepting of the feedback, and less likely to engage in ego-protective mechanisms, such as derogating the task or the evaluator. In fact, they behaved identically to participants who completed a classic self-affirmation manipulation. The theoretical contributions of this paper include (1) identifying intrapersonal effects of online self-presentation and (2) extending self-affirmation theory to include social media use.

I know something you don't: the use of asymmetric personal information for interpersonal advantage

With the widespread use of social networking sites, it is easy to acquire a great deal of personal information about someone before meeting them. How do people use this information when initiating relationships? In the present study, participants either had access to an unknown partners Facebook profile or did not, and were instructed to get their partners to like them in a short instant messaging conversation. Participants used social network and profile information in two ways: probes, asking questions whose answer they already knew, and implicit mentions, referencing information that made them seem more similar to their partner. These strategies successfully increased interpersonal attraction. Participants, however, frequently rated these strategies as deceptive, raising important concerns about the use of asymmetrical personal information for interpersonal gain.

Tell-Tale Words Linguistic Cues Used to Infer the Expertise of Online Medical Advice

This article analyzes the linguistic cues used by naïve perceivers to assess the expertise of online medical advice. We develop a theoretical framework of linguistic correlates to perceived expertise and test it on a corpus of 120 online medical advice messages, written by either medical doctors or laypersons. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analyses show that messages were perceived as more expert if they contained more words (an indicator of uncertainty reduction), fewer I-pronouns and anxiety-related words (indicators of psychological distancing), and more long words and negations (indicators of cognitive complexity). These linguistic cues explained over a third of the variance in expertise ratings. Although unaware of the author of each message, perceivers were able to discern between messages written by doctors versus laypersons. However, only long words were helpful in making this distinction. Results advance the literature on linguistic correlates of psychological processes.

Towards Conceptual Convergence: An Examination of Interpersonal Adaptation

Interpersonal adaptation, or modifying ones behaviors to adjust to a communication partner, is fundamental to social interaction. Numerous concepts have been advanced to explain adaptation, such as accommodation, mimicry, and synchrony. This article reviews the prominent theories of adaptation in communication and psychology in view of understanding the nature of adaptive processes and of achieving conceptual clarity. A set of criteria is developed and used to distinguish between adaptive processes. The analysis shows that communication theories tend to view adaptation as strategic and driven by relational goals, while psychological theories focus on its unconscious and goal-independent aspects. Communication theories emphasize the interpretation of adaptive behaviors, while psychological theories do not. This review identifies theoretical gaps and suggests avenues for integration across disciplinary foci.

Lies in the Eye of the Beholder Asymmetric Beliefs about One’s Own and Others’ Deceptiveness in Mediated and Face-to-Face Communication

This article examines how people’s beliefs about deception in text-based media (i.e., email, instant messenger) and face-to-face communication are distorted by two biases: (a) a self-other asymmetry, whereby people believe themselves to be more honest than their peers across communication contexts; and (b) a media intensification effect, whereby the perceived gap between one’s own and others’ deceptiveness is increased in text-based media, whose affordances (e.g., reduced nonverbal cues) are believed to facilitate deception. We argue that these biases stem from a desire for self-enhancement, or for seeing oneself as good, moral, capable, and impervious to negative media influence. Support for these propositions emerged across a college student sample (Study 1) and a national sample of U.S. adults (Study 2). The results offer a theoretical framework for the distortions in people’s beliefs about mediated deception, and have important practical implications.

There Are Plenty of Fish in the Sea: The Effects of Choice Overload and Reversibility on Online Daters’ Satisfaction With Selected Partners

Online dating is often lauded for improving the dating experience by giving singles large pools of potential partners from whom to choose. This experiment investigates how the number of choices online daters are given, and whether these choices are reversible, affects romantic outcomes. Drawing on the choice overload and decision reversibility theoretical frameworks, we show that, a week after making their selection, online daters who chose from a large set of potential partners (i.e., 24) were less satisfied with their choice than those who selected from a small set (i.e., 6), and were more likely to change their selection. While choice reversibility did not affect daters’ satisfaction, those who selected from a large pool and had the ability to reverse their choice were the least satisfied with their selected partner after one week. The results advance understanding of how media features related to choice affect interpersonal evaluations.

Mobile Media Matters: Media Use and Relationship Satisfaction among Geographically Close Dating Couples

Much research has investigated the uses and effects of new communication technologies in long-distance romantic relationships. Comparatively, however, the importance of these technologies within geographically close romantic relationships has been overlooked. The present study fills in this gap by examining the prevalence of media use in this context and its association with relational well-being. A survey of heterosexual undergraduates involved in proximal dating relationships (N = 211) shows that they used mobile media (phone calls, texting) to a significant extent to connect with partners on a daily basis, and that they reported high quality of communication when using these media. Further, the quality, but not quantity, of mobile communication was associated with partner idealization which, in turn, was associated with relational satisfaction. The results support and extend the Hyperpersonal model of online communication, and contribute to elucidating user practices and media effects within the critical domain of romantic relationships.