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On social networking websites (SNS) there is a general goal to convey desirable self-presentations, which can be achieved in many ways, from lying about qualifications in one’s Linkedin profile to posting flattering Facebook profile photos. In this chapter we use two experiments to explore the pervasive influence that our social relationships have on how we construct our self-presentations and how others form perceptions of our self-presentations in SNS. In the first experiment, participants’ deception was compared across three self-presentational resume settings: a traditional resume, private Linkedin profile, or publicly available Linkedin profile. Findings suggest that the public nature of Linkedin resume claims affected the kinds of deception used, such that public Linkedin resumes were less deceptive about the kinds of information that count most to employers, namely an applicant’s prior work experience and responsibilities, but were more deceptive about interests and hobbies. In a second experiment, we explore how halo effects, defined as global impressions about an individual formed using a single characteristic (e.g., physical attractiveness), can extend beyond the individual and become “extended halo effects” (EHEs). In SNS, EHE predicts that tie strength and status will affect global impression formation of the individual. Participants in a second study evaluated online Linkedin profiles, which manipulated the strength and status of a tie to a recommender. Impressions were positively biased in the presence of strong, high-status ties, despite actual job experience, supporting EHE. Many of the decisions that we make everyday are driven by the desire to convey positive impressions to others. We carefully consider our wardrobe choices or choose to eat at a trendy restaurant to impress a date. We choose to wear a suit and practice a presentation to appear competent to our supervisor and work colleagues. The desire to convey positive impressions is a major force driving human behavior (Goffman, 1959) and is often referred to as a self-presentational goal. In online contexts, selfpresentational goals range as widely as they do face-to-face, from wanting to appear qualified for a job on Linkedin, to wanting to appear romantically desirable on Match. com, and typically involve the desire to elicit a positive impression (Curtis, 1992; Donath, 1999; Roberts & Parks, 1999). Opportunities for self-presentation online are abundant and understanding impression formation via studies of self-presentation has long been a focus of computer-mediated communication research. In computer-mediated spaces we can share a wide variety of information that reflects who we are to a number of different audiences. In a short period of time personal profiles for SNSs have become common. SNS profiles link individuals’ profiles to the profiles of friends, acquaintances and © 2016 Jamie E. Guillory, Jeffrey T. Hancock This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. colleagues. SNS include friendship-oriented profiles, such as profiles on Facebook, and more professionally-oriented profiles, such those seen on Linkedin, in which people upload online versions of their resume and form connections with former and current colleagues, supervisors and friends. SNS link our self-presentations with known and unknown others, providing the opportunity to widely disseminate selfpresentations. While the self-presentations that we craft, both online and face-to-face, are largely our own, the information that we share about ourselves and indeed the way this information is perceived by others is heavily influenced by our social networks. In the chapter that follows, we examine the ways in which our social relationships influence how people construct self-presentations and how others form perceptions of these self-presentations in SNS. We demonstrate these relationships with two experiments. The first explores how social relationships influence deceptive behavior on the professional SNS Linkedin. The second investigates the influence that information about social network connections (e.g., characteristics of and relationships with ties) has on others’ perceptions of online self-presentations on Linkedin. 6.1 The Effect of Linkedin on Deception in Resumes From a self-presentation management perspective, the fundamental desire to maintain positive impressions suggests that social networks are important to shaping the information that people choose to include in self-presentations. Because SNS profiles are virtual self-presentations and are not physically connected to the self, there is frequently concern that the desire to maintain positive impressions will lead people to engage in deception in order to accomplish self-presentational goals. Indeed selfpresentational goals are a common and important motivator for deception (DePaulo et al., 2003). SNS profiles offer novel opportunities for deception not possible faceto-face. Walther (1996, 2007) argues that in computer-mediated settings, users take advantage of the affordances of the medium, such as the reduced cues and the ability to edit, to enhance self-presentations and inflate others’ positive impressions of the self. Though the online environment may facilitate the use of deception to accomplish self-presentational goals, features of this context also have the potential to constrain deception and foster honesty. SNS profiles make self-presentations publicly available and link individuals to the profile who can verify whether information is deceptive. Researchers both on and offline have long demonstrated the importance of social relationships in fostering honesty between individuals (Resnick & Varian, 1997; Resnick, Kuwabara, Zeckhauser, & Friedman, 2000; Zimmerman & Kurapati, 2002). For example, recommender systems on websites like eBay help to ensure that transactions remain honest by providing users, who may have no previous history with a seller, with valuable information about the seller’s trustworthiness. 68   Effects of Network Connections on Deception and Halo Effects in Linkedin Affordances that allow for social links between the virtual representation of self that one encounters online and the face-to-face, offline self can improve the likelihood of honesty in SNS. In the first experiment we investigate how social connections in the professional SNS Linkedin influence the way that we use deception in resume profiles (Guillory & Hancock, 2012). We predicted that people would take a profile’s potential audience into consideration when crafting resume profiles so as to avoid being caught in a lie by network members who can verify information as deceptive. More specifically, we predicted that people would lie less about objective information that network members could verify as truthful (or deceptive) (e.g., job experience and responsibilities), but would instead seek to meet self-presentational goals by lying more about subjective information that would be difficult for former employers or colleagues to recognize as lies (e.g., interests, hobbies) while enhancing self-presentations. For example, if applying for a job requiring large amounts of travel a person might lie in their resume about being interested in travel to appear to be a better fit for the position. The opposite should be true for people creating private profiles that their social network cannot access. Linkedin provides an ideal context for exploring how the publicness of a SNS profile affects self-presentation and deception. Undergraduate participants came to our lab where they were randomly assigned to create a resume in one of the following three conditions: 1) a traditional resume created in Microsoft Word, 2) a completely private Linkedin resume profile that only the user and researchers could access, and 3) a completely public Linkedin resume profile available to anyone online via a web search. Participants were asked to create the resume based on a job description for a consultant position that would be very difficult for a student to attain. Participants were not explicitly encouraged to lie, but were asked to craft their profile to best fit the job description and were offered the added incentive of receiving a $100 gift card if their resume was determined to be the best fit for the position. Once participants completed their resumes, we revealed to students the study’s true purpose of exploring deception in resumes. Participants then identified all lies (i.e., any information intended to create false belief) and described more truthful versions of the deception to provide us with a better idea of the types of lies that participants used in their profiles. Deceptions identified by participants were coded based on how verifiable information was. Verifiable information included aspects of the self-presentation that could be conceivably confirmed by others online. Lies in this category were related to responsibilities, information describing responsibilities at a job or activity; abilities, information indicating an ability to use software, language, or anything involving expertise; and involvement, information indicating level of participation in an activity or job. Unverifiable information made up a smaller subset of lies and included information typically unknown to colleagues. These lies related to interests, Impact of Social Networks on Impression Formation in Linkedin   69 and indicated an interest, motivation, or concentration in some aspect of life. These lies included information about interests or hobbies. We found that participants lied about three times on average. The number of lies that people told did not differ between the experimental conditions, suggesting that whether resume information is publicly available does not influence the frequency of deception in resumes. In line with our predictions we found that it was the type of lies that differed between th

6. Effects of Network Connections on Deception and Halo Effects in Linkedin