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Relationship Formation on the Internet: What’s the Big Attraction?
Author(s) -
McKenna Katelyn Y. A.,
Green Amie S.,
Gleason Marci E. J.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/1540-4560.00246
Subject(s) - the internet , face (sociological concept) , face to face , psychology , internet privacy , attraction , social psychology , line (geometry) , computer science , sociology , world wide web , mathematics , social science , philosophy , linguistics , geometry , epistemology
We hypothesized that people who can better disclose their “true” or inner self to others on the Internet than in face‐to‐face settings will be more likely to form close relationships on‐line and will tend to bring those virtual relationships into their “real” lives. Study 1, a survey of randomly selected Internet newsgroup posters, showed that those who better express their true self over the Internet were more likely than others to have formed close on‐line relationships and moved these friendships to a face‐to‐face basis. Study 2 revealed that the majority of these close Internet relationships were still intact 2 years later. Finally, a laboratory experiment found that undergraduates liked each other more following an Internet compared to a face‐to‐face initial meeting.