The Ash Twins Blog

http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=main.showContent&view=fulltext&format=HTML&id=2002-10827-010

Excerpt:

Parks and Floyd (1995)… found from their samples of Internet users that people feel personal relationships they form on the Internet are close, meaningful, and rewarding. More recently, in a 2-year longitudinal study of randomly selected Internet newsgroup participants, McKenna et al. (2002) found not only that 84% of the participants reported their Internet relationships as being as close, important, and real as their non-Internet relationships but also that these relationships remained remarkably stable over time. Indeed, compared with studies of romantic relationships begun in a traditional face-to-face setting (Attridge, Berscheid, & Simpson, 1995; Hill, Rubin, & Peplau, 1976; Kirkpatrick & Davis, 1994), considerably fewer of the romantic relationships that formed initially over the Internet dissolved, and the majority were reported as having become even closer and more intimate. Nonromantic relationships fared equally well.

Further testifying to the importance and depth of these relationships formed over the Internet, the majority of the participants were not content with having these relationships exist solely in the virtual realm but instead were motivated to bring them into their real lives, with more than 50% meeting their close Internet friends and romantic partners in person…

McKenna and Bargh (1998) studied individuals with stigmatized aspects of identity to test whether models of social identity transformation based on offline group membership (e.g., Deaux, 1996) would hold for online group membership… [T]he more that Internet members participated in the group, the more they incorporated the previously taboo aspect of identity into their self-concept, as measured both by self-reports of their acceptance of this aspect as a direct result of group participation and by behaviors such as “coming out” about this aspect for the first time to non-Internet family and friends… In fact, more than 40% of the respondents in both studies eventually disclosed this previously secret aspect to family and friends for the first time, as a direct result of their Internet group activities…

Postmes et al. (1999) demonstrated that communication patterns within e-mail groups differed significantly in content and form, illustrating that different norms developed within each group and were maintained over time. As e-mail messages exchanged within groups became more prototypical in content, messages sent to members of out-groups differed significantly from the in-group prototype. In other words, norms were developed within the different groups that influenced the use of paralanguage in e-mails to other group members but did not influence behavior in messages to individuals who were not part of the group…

Research has found that in first-time encounters, an individual will be liked better by his or her interaction partner if the encounter takes place in an internet chat room than if the two partners meet face-to-face instead (Bargh, McKenna, & Fitzsimons, 2002; McKenna et al., 2002). This greater liking continued to hold, and indeed increased, after the interaction partners met a second time, face-to-face. Thus, meeting in person enhanced feelings of liking for Internet partners, whereas no such increase in liking occurred for those who met in person on both occasions. Providing an even stronger test of this effect was a condition in which participants met the same person over the Internet and face-to-face but did not know that it was the same person. They were told that they would be interacting with two different people, one of whom they would meet in an Internet chat room and the other they would talk with in person. In actuality, they talked with the same partner both times. Even though participants did not realize this, they reported liking that person significantly more after chatting with him or her on the Internet than after meeting face-to-face…

In a study comparing Internet and face-to-face interactions, Green and McKenna (2002) preselected individuals scoring at the high and low extremes of Leary’s (1983) Interaction Anxiousness Scale and randomly assigned them to interact in small groups. Anxious individuals in the face-to-face condition reported feeling a great deal of anxiety, shyness, and discomfort during the interaction. Their anxious counterparts who interacted in an Internet chat room, however, not only reported feeling significantly less shy, anxious, and uncomfortable, but had self-reports on these measures that were nearly identical to those of nonanxious individuals in the face-to-face condition. In other words, when a socially anxious individual takes part in a group discussion on the Internet, he or she will feel as comfortable, outgoing, and anxiety-free as nonanxious individuals typically feel in face-to-face discussions. Furthermore, anxious individuals were perceived as outgoing, likable, and confident by other group members on the Internet, in stark contrast to the negative ratings they received on these measures by face-to-face group members…

Socially anxious individuals have been found to respond more slowly and less consistently than nonanxious individuals in group settings (Cervin, 1956), to engage in opinion shifts more readily (Kogan & Wallach, 1967), and to be better satisfied with the group’s performance than nonanxious individuals (Zander & Wulff, 1966). Their anxiety may inhibit them from introducing relevant ideas and suggestions to the group and from taking an active role. When interacting in groups on the Internet, however, these individuals appear to function as do nonanxious individuals. Indeed, behaving and being perceived and treated as a confident and nonanxious individual by others in the virtual world may enable anxious individuals to become more confident and less anxious in the offline world as well. McKenna et al. (in press) found that after two years of active participation with others via the Internet, reported levels of social anxiety experienced in offline interactions significantly decreased for participants…

Recent relational models of the self (e.g., Baldwin, 1992; Chen & Andersen, 1999) posit that just as one incorporates important social group identities into one’s self-concept, so too will one incorporate one’s important relationships. An individual is thus likely to be motivated to bring important virtual relationships into his or her everyday life. Indeed, such real-world meetings between virtual friends are becoming increasingly common. In a study of nearly 600 newsgroup participants, McKenna et al. (in press) found that in 1997 slightly more than 50% of the respondents had taken the step of getting together with their closest Internet friend in person. Two years later, that number had increased to 73% of the participants. Meetings take place not only between dyadic friendship pairs, however. Large and small real-world gatherings of virtual group members also take place, where members travel across countries and continents to attend “MUD gatherings,” “knitting circles,” and countless other group “socials” to mingle in the flesh with their fellow group members…