Language Use and Impression Formation:The Effects of Linguistic Cues in Online Dating Profiles

Online daters: check je taal en spelling, goed taalgebruik maakt aantrekkelijk Promovenda Tess van der Zanden onderzocht hoe het taalgebruik in onlinedatingprofielen van elkaar verschilt en hoe dit indrukken over de aantrekkelijkheid van de profieleigenaar beïnvloedt. Ze vergeleek daarbij 12.000 datingprofielen en bevroeg online daters voor haar empirische onderzoek waarop zij op 22 oktober promoveert. Van der Zanden onderzocht eerst de fase van profielconstructie waarin gebruikers een profiel(tekst) creëren om zichzelf te presenteren. Vervolgens de fase van profielverwerking waarin observanten profielen van anderen bekijken en de informatie hierop verwerken. En tot slot de impressievormingsfase waarin lezers indrukken over profieleigenaren vormen op basis van die verwerking. Originaliteit en taligheid scoren Het lijkt erop dat het taalgebruik van daters die een vaste relatie zoeken zowel bewust als onbewust beïnvloed wordt door dit relatiedoel. Onbewust door meer naar zichzelf te verwijzen (bijv. “ik”) en bewust door, strategisch, bepaalde persoonlijkheidskenmerken te noemen die belangrijk worden geacht in een betrouwbare relatie.  Eigenaren van profielen die hoog scoorden op tekstoriginaliteit werden gezien als intelligenter en grappiger, wat er vervolgens voor zorgde dat ze ook als aantrekkelijker (datemateriaal) werden beoordeeld. Dat lukte vooral als meer (concrete) persoonlijke informatie onthulden en metaforen gebruikten. Taalfouten hebben invloed als profielfoto gemiddeld aantrekkelijk is Taalfouten hebben effect op de indrukken die mensen vormen over date-intenties en de persoonlijkheid en aantrekkelijkheid van de profieleigenaren. Dat laat zien dat taalfouten dienen als een belangrijk gegeven voor indrukvorming. Maar niet het enige. Want hoewel taalfouten een negatief effect hebben op fysieke aantrekkelijkheid als een profiel een gemiddeld aantrekkelijke foto bevat, is dat niet het geval bij een aantrekkelijke of onaantrekkelijke foto is. Van der Zanden: ‘In het geval van datingprofielen waar zo weinig gegevens beschikbaar zijn kan elk stukje informatie al grote gevolgen hebben op hoe je persoonlijkheid of aantrekkelijkheid wordt beoordeeld. Op datingplatforms waar de tekst een belangrijk onderdeel is van het profiel, kan ik online daters aanraden om bij het schrijven van hun profiel niet alleen na te denken over wat ze over zichzelf schrijven, maar ook hoe ze de tekst schrijven. Zo kunnen taalfouten het best voorkomen worden en wordt een originele tekst met bijvoorbeeld metaforen juist aangeraden.

The Impact of Internet Social Networking on Young Women’s Mood and Body Image Satisfaction: An Experimental Design

In the present study, the impact of viewing various types of female images online was examined to approximate the potential impact of online photo viewing on social-networking sites. Two-hundred forty-one young women between the ages of 18 and 30 years were recruited on social-networking sites to participate. In this randomized-controlled, Internet-based study, participants were randomly assigned to one of the following groups of roughly 50 participants each: (a) very attractive-thin, (b) very attractive-not thin, (c) average-attractive-thin, (d) average attractive-not thin, and (c) control (landscapes). All participants viewed the corresponding images online via a “mock” social networking page created by the researchers. Trait drive for thinness was examined as a predictor, while mood and body image state satisfaction were assessed at both baseline and post exposure. Results provided partial support for the hypotheses, suggesting that participants exposed to very attractive-thin images had changes in the negative direction in mood and body image state satisfaction, while participants in the nonthin conditions had changes in the positive direction on these same variables. Taken together, this study expanded upon existing literature by suggesting that online photo viewing may be yet another potent sociocultural influence impacting young women’s mood and perceptions of their bodies, particularly through the processes of physical-appearance comparison. Future research should focus on developing, and then disseminating, feasible and effective prevention programs to inoculate vulnerable populations from the potentially detrimental effects of exposure to unrealistic body images on social media

The Effects of Active Social Media Engagement on Eating Disorder Risk Factors in Young Women

This study examined how engaging with female peers on social media affects young womens body image and self-esteem. Participants were 90 female undergraduate students. Fifty participants left comments on photos of one of their own subjectively more attractive acquaintances and interacted with her social media profiles for 10 minutes. The other 40 participants completed the same procedure with a family member they did not consider more attractive than themselves. Women who had engaged with attractive acquaintances had lower state self-esteem and body image than those who had engaged with family members on social media. Self-evaluative salience of appearance investment, drive for thinness, and downward (but not upward) physical appearance tendencies moderated various relationships between condition and self-esteem and body image. The findings reveal active social media engagement is causally related to eating disorder risk factors in young women, and young women with certain traits are more susceptible to such effects

Agency and communion in LinkedIn professional candidates' profiles : bias in recruitment process?

Agency and communion are two content dimensions present of person perception that play a dominant role in making decisions of social nature. Apart from general favourability towards communion when forming judgements about others, people have a tendency to assess more positively persons who reveal stereotypical content categories; men – agency, women – communion. A few research papers offer systematisation of possible biases hiring professionals may exhibit during research and selection (R&S) process and basing the R&S on information found in social media is not immune to those biases. Two experiments with 2 × 2 design (N = 147) were conducted to test whether stereotype-consistent information presented in LinkedIn profiles influences candidates’ assessment. The findings suggest hiring professionals are less biased than lay people and the direction of the observed tendencies is contrary to previously hypothesised

They See Me Scrolling, and I\u27m Hating: Instagram Usage and its Effect on Self-Esteem and Body Image

Research has consistently shown that exposure to thin-ideal media images negatively influences self-perception. Given the escalation of reliance on social media and the heavy online presence of young adults, particularly women, it is essential to identify ways that social media can influence perceptions of body image and self-esteem. This research proposal presents an exploratory investigation into the impact that social media, specifically Instagram, has on women’s views of themselves and their bodies. The aim of the present study is to examine the potential effects of celebrity images, compared with equally attractive peer images and scenery (control) images, on body image and self-esteem in women. Participants will use a mobile application designed to resemble Instagram, which facilitates the exposure to images of celebrities, peers and travel destinations. It is hypothesized that participants exposed to celebrity images will experience lower self-esteem and more negative body image, than those exposed to both peer images and scenery images. In addition, it is expected that the effects of image type would be mediated by physical appearance comparison. In other words, participants exposed to celebrity and peer images will engage in more appearance comparison than participants who viewed scenery images. It is also predicted that celebrity worship will moderate the effect of image type on body image and self-esteem. The effect of exposure to celebrity images is expected to be greater for participants high on celebrity worship. The predicted results will establish a better understanding of the effect of social media on women’s mental health

“Sex Sells”, but who’s buying? The effect of sexual appeals on purchase intention in influencer marketing

Over the last decade, Influencer Marketing has become an integral part of firms’ marketing plans. According to extant literature, brands-influencers collaborations may be more persuasive than traditional advertising. However, little is known about the factors that drive its effectiveness. The aphorism that “sex sells” pervades traditional advertising and seems to be perpetuated in social media platforms like Instagram, though little academic evidence supports it. The present study addresses this research gap by examining the effect of different modes of exhibition of the female body (inconspicuous vs. conspicuous) on consumers’ purchase intention. The analysis of the data collected through an online questionnaire administered to Portuguese Instagram users revealed that conspicuous exhibition of the female body negatively affects purchase intention. The effect is serially mediated by source credibility, endorsement attitude and brand attitude. By providing empirical evidence for the effect of different modes of self-presentation on attitudinal and behavioral change, this study contributes to the growing body of literature on Influencer Marketing and provides managers with important guidelines to select and design brand-influencers collaboration strategies.Na última década, o Marketing de Influência tornou-se parte integrante dos planos de marketing das empresas. De acordo com a literatura académica existente, as colaborações entre marcas e influenciadores digitais são mais persuasivas do que a publicidade tradicional. Contudo, pouco se conhece relativamente aos fatores que determinam a sua eficácia. O aforismo de que “sexo vende” domina a publicidade tradicional e parece perpetuar-se em redes sociais como o Instagram, apesar da falta de fundamentação académica. Este estudo pretende colmatar esta lacuna na literatura ao analisar o efeito de diferentes modos de apresentação do corpo feminino (inconspícua vs. conspícua) na intenção de compra dos consumidores. A análise dos dados recolhidos através de um questionário online administrado a utilizadores portugueses do Instagram sugere a existência de um efeito negativo da exibição conspícua do corpo feminino nas intenções de compra, mediado pela perceção de credibilidade da fonte, atitude em relação à colaboração e à marca. Ao demonstrar empiricamente a existência deste efeito, o presente estudo contribui para o crescente acervo de literatura dedicada ao Marketing de Influência e apresenta diretrizes estratégicas para a seleção e elaboração de parcerias com influenciadores digitais

A LITERATURE ANALYSIS ABOUT SOCIAL INFORMATION CONTRIBUTION AND CONSUMPTION ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Social networking sites (SNSs) have emerged as a center for daily social interactions. Every day, millions of users contribute information about themselves, and consume information about others on SNSs. In recent years, we have witnessed a growing number of studies on the issue of social information contribution and consumption behaviors on SNSs. This paper aims to provide a systematic literature review on this topic across different disciplines to understand the current research state and shed light on controversial findings of SNS usage regarding users’ well-being. We identified 126 relevant articles published between 2008 and 2014, and provide an overview of their antecedents and associated outcomes. Our analysis reveals that a majority of existing work focused primarily on social information contribution, its antecedents and favorable outcomes. Only few studies have dealt with contribution behavior and the dark sides of SNS use. Nevertheless, we could identify different characteristics of social information determining the favorability of contribution behavior. Further, we categorized the scarce papers of consumption behavior regarding the social information characteristics and identified different underlying processes: social comparison, monitoring and browsing. These findings contribute to the Information Systems (IS) discipline by consolidating previous knowledge about SNS usage patterns and individual well-being