Impression Formation in Online-Dating-Situations: Effects of media richness and physical attractiveness information

The present research investigates the effects of media richness, i.e. of paraverbal and nonverbal cues, as well as of physical attractiveness information on impression formation in a fictive online dating setting. Male subjects were presented with identical information about a young woman who presented herself either in a short video-clip, per audio-trace, in a written text that was accompanied by a photo or by written text only. Afterwards, participants judged how confident they felt with the impression they have formed of the target person, how pronounced the impression was, and how much they would like to get in contact with that girl. As expected, all three measures were significantly enhanced in the video as compared to the audio and the text-only condition, but they did not differ from the text-plus-photo condition. Thus, it seems that it was attractiveness information rather than media richness that enhanced desire for contact, confidence in, and clarity of the impression formed. It made no difference whether attractiveness information was static (photo) or dynamic (video), nor whether, whether content information was static (written text) or dynamic (audio). Singles indicated an overall stronger desire for contact and more confidence in their impressions than non-singles. Clarity of the impression did not differ as a function of relationship status. Advantages and disadvantages of the option to provide physical attractiveness information via photos and video-clips in online dating portals are discussed from a social psychological perspective.