Social cognition on the Internet: testing constraints on social network size.
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
The social brain hypothesis (an explanation for the evolution of brain size in primates) predicts that humans typically cannot maintain more than 150 relationships at any one time. The constraint is partly cognitive (ultimately determined by some aspect of brain volume) and partly one of time. Friendships (but not necessarily kin relationships) are maintained by investing time in them, and failure to do so results in an inexorable deterioration in the quality of a relationship. The Internet, and in particular the rise of social networking sites (SNSs), raises the possibility that digital media might allow us to circumvent some or all of these constraints. This allows us to test the importance of these constraints in limiting human sociality. Although the recency of SNSs means that there have been relatively few studies, those that are available suggest that, in general, the ability to broadcast to many individuals at once, and the possibilities this provides in terms of continuously updating our understanding of network members' behaviour and thoughts, do not allow larger networks to be maintained. This may be because only relatively weak quality relationships can be maintained without face-to-face interaction.
10.1098/rstb.2012.0121
The reciprocal relations between facebook relationship maintenance behaviors and adolescents' closeness to friends.
Rousseau Ann,Frison Eline,Eggermont Steven
Journal of adolescence
INTRODUCTION:Scholars suggest that social networking sites such as Facebook offer adolescents an ideal setting for engaging in relationship maintenance behaviors. Despite these suggestions, it remains an open question whether adolescents' online relationship maintenance behaviors can improve aspects of positive friendship quality, such as feelings of closeness. Additionally, it is unclear whether adolescents' feelings of closeness can motivate them to engage in online relationship maintenance behaviors. The aim of this two-wave longitudinal panel study was to investigate the reciprocal relations between Facebook relationship maintenance behaviors (FRMB) and adolescents' closeness to friends. METHOD:A sample of 12- to 18-year-old Flemish adolescents (N = 1840) filled out a paper-and-pencil survey twice within a six month-interval. We estimated cross-lagged structural equation models in AMOS to test the reciprocal relations between FRMB, closeness to friends, and receiving positive Facebook reactions. To test whether the hypothesized relations were moderated by gender and/or age, we conducted multiple group comparison tests. RESULTS:Findings revealed that FRMB and adolescents' closeness to friends were reciprocally related over time: FRMB positively predicted adolescents' closeness to friends and closeness to friends positively predicted FRMB. In addition, receiving positive Facebook reactions mediated these reciprocal relations. CONCLUSION:By revealing that receiving positive Facebook reactions mediates the reciprocal relationships between FRMB and adolescents' closeness to friends, we now better understand how FRMB can increase adolescents' closeness to friends and how increased closeness to friends can enhance adolescents' FRMB. The discussion focuses on the understanding of these findings, directions for future research, and key limitations.
10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.09.001
Interpersonal Goals as Predictors of Facebook Use, Social Capital, and Envy.
Tobin Stephanie J,Chant Grace,Clay Rhiannon
Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking
This study sought to examine whether interpersonal goals can help us understand who engages in social-capital-building responsive behaviors and envy-eliciting passive behaviors on Facebook. One hundred eighty-eight adults completed measures of interpersonal goals (compassionate and self-image), Facebook use (posting, responding, and searching), social capital sources and benefits, social comparison, and envy, along with various control measures. Serial mediation analyses revealed that compassionate goals significantly predicted four distinct social capital benefits (offline participation, emotional support, horizon broadening, and networking value) through greater Facebook responding and sources of social capital. Furthermore, self-image goals significantly predicted envy through greater Facebook searching and social comparison. These effects were significant with and without controlling for age, gender, Facebook friends, Facebook frequency, Facebook hours, self-esteem, attachment style, social desirability, and the other interpersonal goal and Facebook behaviors. Consistent with research on interpersonal goals in offline interactions, compassionate goals predicted more responsive behaviors and better social outcomes, while self-image goals predicted a competitive mindset and negative emotion. These findings extend the social networking site (SNS) literature by identifying a relevant new individual difference associated with SNS use and key outcomes related to well-being.
10.1089/cyber.2019.0446
With whom do you feel most intimate?: Exploring the quality of Facebook friendships in relation to similarities and interaction behaviors.
PloS one
It is widely accepted that people tend to associate more and feel closer to those who share similar attributes with themselves. Most of the research on the phenomenon has been carried out in face-to-face contexts. However, it is necessary to study the phenomenon in computer-mediated contexts as well. Exploring Facebook is important in that friendships within the network indicate a broader spectrum of friends, ranging from complete strangers to confiding relations. Also, since diverse communication methods are available on Facebook, which method a user adopts to interact with a "friend" could influence the quality of the relationship, i.e. intimacy. Thus, current research aims to test whether people in computer-mediated contexts do perceive more intimacy toward friends who share similar traits, and further, aims to examine which interaction methods influence the closeness of relationship by collecting activity data of users on Facebook. Results from current study show traits related to intimacy in the online context of Facebook. Moreover, in addition to the interaction type itself, direction of the interaction influenced how intimate users feel towards their friends. Overall findings suggest that further investigation on the dynamics of online communication methods used in developing and maintaining relationships is necessary.
10.1371/journal.pone.0176319
Self-disclosure on SNS: Do disclosure intimacy and narrativity influence interpersonal closeness and social attraction?
Lin Ruoyun,Utz Sonja
Computers in human behavior
On social media, users can easily share their feelings, thoughts, and experiences with the public, including people who they have no previous interaction with. Such information, though often embedded in a stream of others' news, may influence recipients' perception toward the discloser. We used a special design that enables a quasi-experience of SNS browsing, and examined if browsing other's posts in a news stream can create a feeling of familiarity and (even) closeness toward the discloser. In addition, disclosure messages can vary in the degree of intimacy (from superficial to intimate) and narrativity (from a random blather to a story-like narrative). The roles of disclosure intimacy and narrativity on perceived closeness and social attraction were examined by a 2 × 2 experimental design. By conducting one lab study and another online replication, we consistently found that disclosure frequency, when perceived as appropriate, predicted familiarity and closeness. The effects of disclosure intimacy and narrativity were not stable. Further exploratory analyses showed that the roles of disclosure intimacy on closeness and social attraction were constrained by the perceived appropriateness, and the effects of narrativity on closeness and social attraction were mediated by perceived entertainment value.
10.1016/j.chb.2017.01.012
"A Match Made...Online?" The Effects of User-Generated Online Dater Profile Types (Free-Spirited Versus Uptight) on Other Users' Perception of Trustworthiness, Interpersonal Attraction, and Personality.
Jin Seunga Venus,Martin Cassie
Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking
This study tested the effects of an online dater's profile type (open/free-spirited vs. traditional/uptight) on people's perception of the dater's trustworthiness, interpersonal attraction, and Big Five personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion). Interpersonal deception theory, theories of attraction, and source credibility model inform this research, providing a theoretical foundation for the proposed research questions and hypothesis. This research employed a simple two-group comparison experiment (open/free-spirited dater profile vs. traditional/uptight dater profile). Participants were randomly assigned to view either open or traditional profiles, and asked about their perception of the target dater. Results indicated a significant causal effect of user-generated online dater profile types on the dependent variables (perceived trustworthiness, interpersonal attraction, and Big Five personality traits) as well as a significant mediating effect of perceived trustworthiness. This study provided unique and necessary information on self-presentation and other perception in the online dating context, with the aim of helping theorists, online daters, and managers of online dating sites further their understandings of this novel and exciting romantic frontier.
10.1089/cyber.2014.0564
Rubbernecking Effect of Intimate Information on Twitter: When Getting Attention Works Against Interpersonal Attraction.
Baruh Lemi,Cemalcılar Zeynep
Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking
Social networking sites offer individuals an opportunity to document and share information about themselves, as well as engaging in social browsing to learn about others. As a micro-blogging site within which users often share information publicly, Twitter may be a particularly suitable venue that can help satisfy both of these motivations. This study investigates how viewers react to disclosure of intimate information on Twitter. Specifically, the impact of disclosure intimacy is studied on attention that viewers pay to a Twitter page, reduction in their uncertainty about the attributes of the page owner, and their interpersonal attraction to the owner of the page. A total of 618 adult online panel members viewed one of six Twitter pages that contained either low-intimacy or high-intimacy tweets. Analyses indicated that viewers exposed to the Twitter pages containing high-intimate information paid more attention to the pages, were more confident about the attributions they could make about the page owner, yet were less willing to pursue further socialization with the page owner. Furthermore, attributional confidence mediated and perceived similarity moderated the relationship between disclosure intimacy and interpersonal attraction. This interaction between disclosure intimacy and perceived similarity was such that viewers who considered the page owner to be similar (dissimilar) to themselves were more (less) socially attracted to page owners who disclosed intimate information. These findings suggest that while intimate information shared on a Twitter page draws attention, this does not necessarily result in further socialization with the page owner--an effect we named as the "rubbernecking effect" of intimate information.
10.1089/cyber.2015.0099
From Face-to-Face to Facebook: Probing the Effects of Passive Consumption on Interpersonal Attraction.
Orben Amy C,Mutak Augustin,Dablander Fabian,Hecht Marlene,Krawiec Jakub M,Valkovičová Natália,Kosīte Daina
Frontiers in psychology
Social media is radically altering the human social landscape. Before the internet era, human interaction consisted chiefly of direct and reciprocal contact, yet with the rise of social media, the passive consumption of other users' information is becoming an increasingly popular pastime. Passive consumption occurs when a user reads the posts of another user without interacting with them in any way. Previous studies suggest that people feel more connected to an artificial person after passively consuming their Facebook posts. This finding could help explain how relationships develop during passive consumption and what motivates this kind of social media use. This protocol proposes two studies that would make both a methodological and a theoretical contribution to the field of social media research. Both studies investigate the influence of passive consumption on changes in interpersonal attraction. The first study tests whether screenshots, which are widely used in present research, can be used as a proxy for real Facebook use. It measures the changes in interpersonal attraction after passive consumption of either a screenshot, an artificial profile, or an acquaintance's real Facebook profile. The second study relies on traditional theories of relationship formation and motivation to investigate which variables (perceived intimacy, perceived frequency of posts, perceived variety of post topics, attributional confidence, and homophily) moderate the link between interpersonal attraction before and after passive consumption. The results of the first study provide insights into the generalizability of the effect by using different stimuli, while also providing a valuable investigation into a commonly used method in the research field. The results of the second study supplement researchers' understanding of the pathways linking passive use and interpersonal attraction, giving the field further insight into whether theories about offline relationship formation can be used in an online context. Taken together, this protocol aims to shed light on the intricate relation between passive consumption and interpersonal attraction, and variables moderating this effect.
10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01163
Expressive suppression and neural responsiveness to nonverbal affective cues.
Petrican Raluca,Rosenbaum R Shayna,Grady Cheryl
Neuropsychologia
Optimal social functioning occasionally requires concealment of one's emotions in order to meet one's immediate goals and environmental demands. However, because emotions serve an important communicative function, their habitual suppression disrupts the flow of social exchanges and, thus, incurs significant interpersonal costs. Evidence is accruing that the disruption in social interactions, linked to habitual expressive suppression use, stems not only from intrapersonal, but also from interpersonal causes, since the suppressors' restricted affective displays reportedly inhibit their interlocutors' emotionally expressive behaviors. However, expressive suppression use is not known to lead to clinically significant social impairments. One explanation may be that over the lifespan, individuals who habitually suppress their emotions come to compensate for their interlocutors' restrained expressive behaviors by developing an increased sensitivity to nonverbal affective cues. To probe this issue, the present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan healthy older women while they viewed silent videos of a male social target displaying nonverbal emotional behavior, together with a brief verbal description of the accompanying context, and then judged the target's affect. As predicted, perceivers who reported greater habitual use of expressive suppression showed increased neural processing of nonverbal affective cues. This effect appeared to be coordinated in a top-down manner via cognitive control. Greater neural processing of nonverbal cues among perceivers who habitually suppress their emotions was linked to increased ventral striatum activity, suggestive of increased reward value/personal relevance ascribed to emotionally expressive nonverbal behaviors. These findings thus provide neural evidence broadly consistent with the hypothesized link between habitual use of expressive suppression and compensatory development of increased responsiveness to nonverbal affective cues, while also suggesting one explanation for the suppressors' poorer cognitive performance in social situations. Moreover, our results point to a potential neural mechanism supporting the development and perpetuation of expressive suppression as an emotion regulation strategy.
10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.09.013
Neural precursors of future liking and affective reciprocity.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Why do certain group members end up liking each other more than others? How does affective reciprocity arise in human groups? The prediction of interpersonal sentiment has been a long-standing pursuit in the social sciences. We combined fMRI and longitudinal social network data to test whether newly acquainted group members' reward-related neural responses to images of one another's faces predict their future interpersonal sentiment, even many months later. Specifically, we analyze associations between relationship-specific valuation activity and relationship-specific future liking. We found that one's own future (T2) liking of a particular group member is predicted jointly by actor's initial (T1) neural valuation of partner and by that partner's initial (T1) neural valuation of actor. These actor and partner effects exhibited equivalent predictive strength and were robust when statistically controlling for each other, both individuals' initial liking, and other potential drivers of liking. Behavioral findings indicated that liking was initially unreciprocated at T1 yet became strongly reciprocated by T2. The emergence of affective reciprocity was partly explained by the reciprocal pathways linking dyad members' T1 neural data both to their own and to each other's T2 liking outcomes. These findings elucidate interpersonal brain mechanisms that define how we ultimately end up liking particular interaction partners, how group members' initially idiosyncratic sentiments become reciprocated, and more broadly, how dyads evolve. This study advances a flexible framework for researching the neural foundations of interpersonal sentiments and social relations that-conceptually, methodologically, and statistically-emphasizes group members' neural interdependence.
10.1073/pnas.1802176115
A neural link between affective understanding and interpersonal attraction.
Anders Silke,de Jong Roos,Beck Christian,Haynes John-Dylan,Ethofer Thomas
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Being able to comprehend another person's intentions and emotions is essential for successful social interaction. However, it is currently unknown whether the human brain possesses a neural mechanism that attracts people to others whose mental states they can easily understand. Here we show that the degree to which a person feels attracted to another person can change while they observe the other's affective behavior, and that these changes depend on the observer's confidence in having correctly understood the other's affective state. At the neural level, changes in interpersonal attraction were predicted by activity in the reward system of the observer's brain. Importantly, these effects were specific to individual observer-target pairs and could not be explained by a target's general attractiveness or expressivity. Furthermore, using multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA), we found that neural activity in the reward system of the observer's brain varied as a function of how well the target's affective behavior matched the observer's neural representation of the underlying affective state: The greater the match, the larger the brain's intrinsic reward signal. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that reward-related neural activity during social encounters signals how well an individual's "neural vocabulary" is suited to infer another person's affective state, and that this intrinsic reward might be a source of changes in interpersonal attraction.
10.1073/pnas.1516191113