Does web communication warm-up relationships? Self-disclosure in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)

With the development of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), consideration was given to self-dis- closure, intended as a communication that involves sharing intimate information about oneself. Objective: a) Verify the dif- ferences between online and face to face conditions in self-disclosure and likeability. b) Verify if CMC could facilitate face to face interaction. c) Verify gender differences in self-disclosure and likeability in online and face to face conditions. Participants: 40 males and 40 females undergraduate students of the University of Florence, aged 20-30 years. Procedure: the experiment is divided into four conditions. Each condition is divided into two times of twenty minutes each. There are twenty participants for each condition (10 males and 10 females). The four conditions are: Condition 1: Face to face communication for both meetings; Condition 2: Computer Mediated Communication for both meetings; Condition 3: Computer Mediated Commu- nication and face to face communication; Condition 4: Face to face communication and Computer Mediated Communica- tion. Measures: a) The Relationship Development Scale measuring self-disclosure after each session. The level of intimacy achieved on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 = strongly agree, 7 = strongly disagree). b) The 14 point Likert scale to measure the like- ability felt for the partner. Results: A MANOVA revealed the main effects of mixed conditions on self-disclosure scores. Post hoc comparisons emphasise a significant difference between condition 3 and conditions 2 and 4. The self-disclosure score increased in condition 3. Discussion: the online communication seems to produce a warming effect thus help establish a good level of intimacy with the partner.