Citation

Walther JB, Van Der Heide B, Kim SY, Westerman D, Tong ST. Hum. Commun. Res. 2008; 34(1): 28-49.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, International Communication Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00312.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This research explores how cues deposited by social partners onto one’s online networking profile affect observers’ impressions of the profile owner. An experiment tested the relationships between both (a) what one’s associates say about a person on a social network site via “wall postings,” where friends leave public messages, and (b) the physical attractiveness of one’s associates reflected in the photos that accompany their wall postings on the attractiveness and credibility observers attribute to the target profile owner. Results indicated that profile owners’ friends’ attractiveness affected their own in an assimilative pattern. Favorable or unfavorable statements about the targets interacted with target gender: Negatively valenced messages about certain moral behaviors increased male profile owners’ perceived physical attractiveness, although they caused females to be viewed as less attractive.