Social attraction in video-mediated communication:The role of nonverbal affiliative behavior

The first aim of this study was to analyze video-mediated communication (VMC), in comparison to face-to-face (FTF) communication, and the effect it has on how communicators express nonverbal affiliative behaviors relevant for social attraction. Second, this study aimed to discover whether these nonverbal expressions relate to communicators’ social attraction. An experiment with 93 cross-sex dyads was conducted, with a get-acquainted exercise in a VMC or a FTF condition. Our findings revealed that communicators in VMC smiled more and spoke louder. In addition, VMC interactants displayed less facial touching than FTF interactants. Finally, more gaze aversion and a higher speech rate were found to influence social attraction. These findings have implications for research on cue-rich computer-mediated communication (CMC) and the way in which communicators nonverbally express themselves in comparison to copresent FTF communication. Additionally, this study has implications for social information processing theory which may be extended to include cue-rich forms of CMC

Perceived Intimacy Differences of Daily Online and Offline Interactions in People’s Social Network

This study examined which media people use on a day-to-day basis to communicate and whether tie strength influenced this media use. Furthermore, we analyzed whether online and offline interactions differ in perceived intimacy and whether tie strength impacts perceived interaction intimacy: 347 real interactions of 9 participants (3 male, 6 female) were analyzed; 172 online (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, email, SMS interactions) and 175 offline (recorded phone and face-to-face conversations). The results revealed that the participants communicated most frequently face-to-face or via WhatsApp, especially with strong ties. Furthermore, participants rated their interactions with strong ties as more intimate compared to weak-tie interactions. Our findings have implications for Social Information Processing theory, as our findings show that people are equally able to communicate intimate messages online and offline