Research On The Impact Of Self-presentation On Interpersonal Initial Trust In The Initial Stage Of Online Social Networking

At the early stage of online networking socializing, in case of without any knowledge about others, the strangers who present the information in the social networking software files, such as personally identifiable information, avatar, nickname etc., can be firsthand information for us to make trust judgment. At present, the initial trust in the online networking transaction area has been discussed, however, the empirical study about the influence of others' self-presentation on initial trust at the early stage of online networking socializing is relatively deficient. Therefore, this study takes the most popular online networking software ‘WeChat' as an example and takes college students as research subjects, using the presentation of information which is closely related to the personal identity in social networking software files as research variables, such as personally identifiable information, source information(Ingroup or outgroup), gender icon attribute, nickname, facial avatar gender and facial avatar attractiveness. In study1 and study2, we employed behavioral technology to explore influence of interpersonal initial trust of different levels of detail in personally identifiable information and source information(Ingroup or outgroup)(study1); in addition, nickname of real or non-real and gender icon attribute(study2). Furthermore, in study3, we use behavioral and event-related potentials(ERPs) technologies to explore the effects and neural mechanism of initial trust in the condition of face gender and facial attractiveness. Through three experimental studies, the following results are obtained:(1) In three experimental stud ies, the participants' gender and the trust propensity have no significant effects on interpersonal initial trust.(2) In study 1, the results show that, at the early stage of online networking socializing, compared with brief personally identifiable information and outgroup presentation, personally identifiable information in detail and ingroup presentation leading to a higher level of interpersonal initial trust.(3)In study 2, the results show that, at the early stage of online networking socializing, compared with the nickname presents the non-real name and the female icon attribute, the real name and the male icon attribute presents a higher level of initial trust belief and trust behavior.(4)In study 3, behavioral and ERPs findings indicate that: In the decision-making phase, face gender and facial attractiveness have no significant main effects on P2 component. Facial attractiveness but not face gender has significant main effect on the amplitude of N2 and LPP components, in particular, the amplitude of N2 component in the condition of highly attractive faces was more negative than that of low attractive faces. It suggests that using different levels of attractive faces as stimulus, human being would distribute more attention to the highly attractive faces than low attractive faces. In addition, compared with the highly attractive faces, the amplitude of LPP component was significantly more negative in the condition of the low attractive faces. It suggests that low attractive faces can evoke larger LPP amplitude as well as negative or neutral stimulus. In the feedback phase, compared with gain feedback, feedback-related negativity(FRN) is larger in response to loss feedback, which verifies FRN component is very sensitive to valence of outcome. P300 amplitude has no significant differences in face gender and facial attractiveness, however, P300 latency is larger in response to gain feedback compared to loss feedback, which suggests that subejects process positive feedback earlier.