Does communicating via a mediated environment reduce the debilitating effects of social anxiety on interpersonal impression management?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify moderators of the impression management process. The research sought to determine if a mediated communication channel moderated the effects of social anxiety on interpersonal impression management. Furthermore, a mediated channel was posited as a relatively unthreatening environment where people with social anxiety would have more success managing their impressions. Lastly, the current study attempted to provide some of the first empirical support for the hyperpersonal perspective to online communication. 5203 Two hundred and fourteen people (n= 214) completed a pretest to assess their levels of trait anxiety. The participants were divided into 72 dyads and were asked to get to know a partner in either a face-to-face or computer mediated environment. Immediately after their conversations, participants completed a post-test instrument measuring their impressions of their partner and of their interaction. Results indicate that highly anxious individuals were perceived to be significantly less anxious after computer mediated conversations than following face-to-face interactions. The data also suggests that partners liked highly anxious subjects significantly more after mediated conversations than following face-to-face contact. Interestingly, the anxious participants were not more confident in either the mediated or face-to-face contexts. 5203 Because people were not more confident online, it seems that mediated environments help people hide their anxious, socially debilitating symptoms rather than giving them more social skill. Finding that partners perceived anxious subjects as less anxious but more liked online than after face-to-face interactions lends support for the hyperpersonal perspective.