Meeting in Cyberspace: Home-page Content Affects Impression Formation

Forming and Testing Implicit Personality Theories in Cyberspace

Teaching of Psychology ◽

10.1207/s15328023top2503_16 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 216-220 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Miri D. Goldstein

Keyword(s):

Impression Formation ◽

Introductory Psychology ◽

Home Page ◽

Home Pages ◽

Implicit Personality ◽

Personality Theories

In this article, I describe an exercise for Social, Personality, and Introductory Psychology classes. In this exercise, students form implicit personality theories (IPTs) based on information provided by social psychologists on their internet home pages. As part of the exercise, students also compose a personal home page and describe the IPTs that are likely to emerge from the information they present. Students reported that the exercise was enjoyable and enhanced their understanding of the influence of IPTs on impression formation.

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Who owns a personal home page?

Swiss Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1024//1421-0185.62.2.121 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 62 (2) ◽

pp. 121-129 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Astrid Schütz ◽

Franz Machilek

Keyword(s):

Search Engine ◽

Home Page ◽

Sampling Strategies ◽

Home Pages ◽

Personal Home Pages ◽

Age And Sex

Research on personal home pages is still rare. Many studies to date are exploratory, and the problem of drawing a sample that reflects the variety of existing home pages has not yet been solved. The present paper discusses sampling strategies and suggests a strategy based on the results retrieved by a search engine. This approach is used to draw a sample of 229 personal home pages that portray private identities. Findings on age and sex of the owners and elements characterizing the sites are reported.

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How Socially Relevant Visual Characteristics of Avatars Influence Impression Formation

Journal of Media Psychology Theories Methods and Applications ◽

10.1027/1864-1105/a000005 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 37-43 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

David Weibel ◽

Daniel Stricker ◽

Bartholomäus Wissmath ◽

Fred W. Mast

Keyword(s):

Impression Formation ◽

Pupil Size ◽

Conscious Perception ◽

Viewing Angle ◽

Frontal View ◽

Computer Mediated ◽

First Impression ◽

Visual Characteristics ◽

Socially Relevant ◽

Blink Frequency

Like in the real world, the first impression a person leaves in a computer-mediated environment depends on his or her online appearance. The present study manipulates an avatar’s pupil size, eyeblink frequency, and the viewing angle to investigate whether nonverbal visual characteristics are responsible for the impression made. We assessed how participants (N = 56) evaluate these avatars in terms of different attributes. The findings show that avatars with large pupils and slow eye blink frequency are perceived as more sociable and more attractive. Compared to avatars seen in full frontal view or from above, avatars seen from below were rated as most sociable, self-confident, and attractive. Moreover, avatars’ pupil size and eyeblink frequency escape the viewer’s conscious perception but still influence how people evaluate them. The findings have wide-ranging applied implications for avatar design.

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Forming Impressions of Personality

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000179 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 153-163 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Sanne Nauts ◽

Oliver Langner ◽

Inge Huijsmans ◽

Roos Vonk ◽

Daniël H. J. Wigboldus

Keyword(s):

Impression Formation ◽

Context Dependent

Asch’s seminal research on “Forming Impressions of Personality” (1946) has widely been cited as providing evidence for a primacy-of-warmth effect, suggesting that warmth-related judgments have a stronger influence on impressions of personality than competence-related judgments (e.g., Fiske, Cuddy, & Glick, 2007 ; Wojciszke, 2005 ). Because this effect does not fit with Asch’s Gestalt-view on impression formation and does not readily follow from the data presented in his original paper, the goal of the present study was to critically examine and replicate the studies of Asch’s paper that are most relevant to the primacy-of-warmth effect. We found no evidence for a primacy-of-warmth effect. Instead, the role of warmth was highly context-dependent, and competence was at least as important in shaping impressions as warmth.

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