TY - GEN
T1 - Which post will impress the most? Impression formation based on visual and textual cues in Facebook profiles
AU - Pelled, Ayellet
AU - Zilberstein, Tanya
AU - Pick, Eran
AU - Patkin, Yael
AU - Tsironlikov, Alona
AU - Tal-Or, Nurit
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.
PY - 2016/7/11
Y1 - 2016/7/11
N2 - The existing research presents ambivalent evidence regarding the significance of visual cues, as opposed to textual cues, in the process of impression formation. While textual information might poses a stronger effect due to its solid and unambiguous character, visual information may have a stronger effect due to its vividness and immediate absorption. This debate is particularly relevant in the context of online social networks, as they are constructed on the sharing of textual and visual elements between their users. Two consecutive online studies test the main research question: Which elements of one's Facebook profile have a more significant influence on impression formation- pictures or texts? Study 1 found that outside the context of Facebook, textual cues were more dominant in the process of impression formation. Study 2, which tested impression formation via Facebook, further corroborated this result; suggesting that the textual cues are also dominant in the context of online profiles. Moreover, these effects were influenced by individual characteristics of the participants, such as 'need for cognition', in a manner that individuals with a high need for cognition placed more emphasis on textual cues. Amount of 'likes' also influenced the impression formation, especially when the profile owner was perceived as manipulative. Additional interactions and further implication are discussed.
AB - The existing research presents ambivalent evidence regarding the significance of visual cues, as opposed to textual cues, in the process of impression formation. While textual information might poses a stronger effect due to its solid and unambiguous character, visual information may have a stronger effect due to its vividness and immediate absorption. This debate is particularly relevant in the context of online social networks, as they are constructed on the sharing of textual and visual elements between their users. Two consecutive online studies test the main research question: Which elements of one's Facebook profile have a more significant influence on impression formation- pictures or texts? Study 1 found that outside the context of Facebook, textual cues were more dominant in the process of impression formation. Study 2, which tested impression formation via Facebook, further corroborated this result; suggesting that the textual cues are also dominant in the context of online profiles. Moreover, these effects were influenced by individual characteristics of the participants, such as 'need for cognition', in a manner that individuals with a high need for cognition placed more emphasis on textual cues. Amount of 'likes' also influenced the impression formation, especially when the profile owner was perceived as manipulative. Additional interactions and further implication are discussed.
KW - CMC
KW - Facebook
KW - Need for Cognition
KW - Online Social Networks Impression formation
KW - Textual Primacy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85027410968&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/2930971.2930997
DO - 10.1145/2930971.2930997
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85027410968
SN - 9781450339384
T3 - ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
BT - Proceedings of the 7th 2016 International Conference on Social Media and Society, SMSociety 2016
A2 - Gruzd, Anatoliy
A2 - Jacobson, Jenna
A2 - Ruppert, Evelyn
A2 - Mai, Philip
A2 - Murthy, Dhiraj
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
T2 - 7th International Conference on Social Media and Society, SMSociety 2016
Y2 - 11 July 2016 through 13 July 2016
ER -