"it's Not Who You Know, but Who You Add:" An investigation into the differential impact of friend adding and self-disclosure on interpersonal perceptions on Facebook

Anthony M. Limperos, Daniel J. Tamul, Julia K. Woolley, John S.W. Spinda, S. Shyam Sundar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

This research seeks to understand how people perceive and respond to structural factors and different types of disclosure on Facebook when evaluating the profile of someone they have never met offline. Using a 2 × 3 × 2 between-subjects experimental design, this research explored the relationship between friend adding (add; no add), levels of self-disclosure (low, medium, high), and sex of the Facebook profile owner (male; female) on feelings of interpersonal liking, future behavioral intentions to interact, and homophily. Results indicated that friend adding and higher levels of self-disclosure led to greater feelings of interpersonal liking and homophily amongst both male and female participants. In addition, males tended to view other male profiles with moderate amounts of disclosure and female profiles with the highest amount of disclosure most favorably. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)496-505
Number of pages10
JournalComputers in Human Behavior
Volume35
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2014

Keywords

  • Facebook
  • Interpersonal perceptions
  • Relationships
  • Social networking
  • Technological affordances

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • General Psychology

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