![]() With higher levels of uncertainty, individuals tend to look for more signals to “fill the gaps” when making interpersonal judgments ( Spence, 1974). However, online profiles tend to be overly curated and managed by users for self-promotion, self-enhancement, and impression management ( Toma and Hancock, 2011), making the trustworthiness of the disclosed information (e.g., valence) questionable.įurthermore, the context of this study indicates a high level of uncertainty because the target is a stranger, and the only reference is their questionable self-disclosure information. In this social context, the only reference available for a perceiver is the stranger's self-disclosure information on their online profile. ![]() Moreover, the role of trustworthiness could be more significant in passive online consumption. Previous studies have suggested that the level of trustworthiness of disclosure information plays a crucial role in the effect of valence on interpersonal perception ( Runge and Archer, 1981 Robinson et al., 1995). As such, the mixed findings of the influence of information valence on impression formation (e.g., Robinson et al., 1995 Orben and Dunbar, 2017) have led to a demand for further exploration. ![]() On the contrary, individuals who disclose too much positive information may be considered dishonest, which will in turn influence the evaluation of their impressions. For example, individuals who disclose negative information may be perceived as honest, which may allow them to obtain further favorable impression judgments ( Robinson et al., 1995). negative) effect on impression formation, while in some cases, negative self-disclosure is preferred and leads to unexpected positive influence ( Runge and Archer, 1981). negative) self-disclosure has a favorable (vs. The positivity or negativity of the information disclosed has a significant influence on impression formation. In terms of self-disclosure, valence refers to the extent to which “the information shared is positive, neutral, or negative” ( Orben and Dunbar, 2017, p. ![]() As a result, it is crucial to understand how individuals make initial impression judgments, especially considering that it is becoming more widespread and convenient to get acquainted with a stranger based on their self-disclosure information on their social media profiles.Īn important dimension of personal self-disclosure is valence ( Gilbert and Horenstein, 1975). Moreover, it is clear that individuals search for strangers or build initial contacts with strangers via social media platforms, such as LinkedIn or Facebook. In online settings, individuals frequently encounter strangers, and they make inferences based on the profiles of these strangers without any prior interaction ( Bacev-Giles and Haji, 2017). A common example of passive consumption in our daily life is viewing the posts of other social media users without interacting with them ( Orben and Dunbar, 2017). Social media actively reconfigures the ways in which individuals socialize with other individuals ( Orben and Dunbar, 2017) because users can passively consume information provided by other social media users, which is quite different from directed and reciprocated offline interaction. First impression is a salient topic in the domain of impression information because the first impression can lead to biased judgments of subsequent information in offline contexts ( Asch, 1946) and online environments ( Walther, 1993). Impression formation is “a process by which an organized overall impression emerges in which single traits receive specific meanings” ( Bierhoff and Klein, 1989, p. At that time, individuals tend to seek cues from both self-disclosure valence and perceived homophily to form the trustworthiness perception, and the influence of self-disclosure depends on the level of perceived homophily. Trustworthiness mediates the effect of self-disclosure valence on likability when the individuals feel that they are dissimilar or even slightly similar to strangers. The results from an online experiment ( N = 204) suggest that self-disclosure valence has a significant effect on perceived trustworthiness and likability when individuals evaluate an unknown future collaborator using the social media profile. We also focus on trustworthiness as a mediator and perceived homophily as a moderator to specify the underlying mechanisms through which self-disclosure valence affects first impression formation. dominantly negative social media posts of a future collaborator) influences first impression formation on social media. This study aims to understand how the valence of self-disclosure (operationalized as the dominantly positive vs. 2School of Media and Communication, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.1Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.Yuren Qin 1 Hichang Cho 1 Pengxiang Li 2 * Lianshan Zhang 1 ![]()
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