Affinity Through Instant Messaging

Abstract

The present manuscript explores affinity seeking, testing, and signaling in initial interactions of opposite-sex strangers using instant messaging. Sixty dyads (N = 120) interacted for 20 minutes and participants identified when they showed liking and when they perceived their partner showing liking in the interaction transcript. Participants also reported overall liking for and the perception of being liked by their conversation partner on a survey instrument. The results indicated that participants who perceived more liking in the text and accurately decoded messages of liking from their partner, believed their conversational partner liked them more. Participants who perceived more disliking messages in the text liked their conversational partners less and believed their partner liked them less as well. Six dyadic analyses using structural equation modeling demonstrated that effects of affinity seeking, testing, and signaling were moderated by participant sex. For females, sending messages of disliking, perceiving messages of disliking, and accurately decoding of disliking were associated with overall liking of their male conversational partner. The implications of interpreting affinity messages in the formation of online relationships are discussed.