Een profielfoto met positieve commentaren doet andere mensen de persoon aantrekkelijker inschatten dan als er weinig of negatieve commentaren bijstaan. Dit blijkt uit een onderzoek van Seoyeon Hong, Kevin Wisevan et al aan de School of Journalism aan de universiteit van Missouri.

Hong stelt hierover: “People tend to rely more on other-generated information than self-generated information when forming impressions. In other words, opinions of other people matter more than the target person’s own self-presentation. Thus, for social networking users concerned about forming a desired impression, being aware of other-generated information about oneself is paramount in the goal of achieving a positive self-presentation.”

We zijn dus toch echt wel een beetje een kuddebeest, lijkt het, ook op Facebook.

Abstract van het onderzoek:

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social cues in self-presentations and the congruence of other-generated comments with the self-presentation in people’s evaluations of a profile owner. A 2 (level of social cues: high vs. low)×2 (congruent vs. incongruent)×2 (order)×2 (multiple messages) mixed-subject experiment was conducted with 104 college students. The results showed that a profile owner was perceived less socially attractive when other-generated comments were incongruent with the profile owner’s self-presentation. No matter how people package themselves with extravagant self-presentations, it cannot be very successful without validation from others. Interestingly, an interaction effect between congruence and the level of social cues suggested that perceived popularity was low in the incongruent condition regardless of level of social cue. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.