Social perception through online discussions with malicious and nonmalicious content: A quasi-experimental study

OBJECTIVES: In recent years, the use of online meetings has gained in importance for many people in various life domains. We used scenarios from serious game role cards to examine conditions under which online group meetings can be settings that facilitate short-term changes in social perception (interpersonal trust, injustice sensitivity). Specifically, we examined whether individual changes in interpersonal trust and sensitivity to injustice were associated with participants' satisfaction with team collaboration and with the discussion content (harmful intentions of others vs. emotionally neutral tasks). METHODS: In this quasi-experimental intervention study with a pre-post design covering two weeks, 201 participants were randomly assigned to one of three digital discussion groups differing in task content: The neutral discussion group (n = 65) was compared to a discussion group (n = 68) in which there was a direct focus on malicious intent (insider motives), and a second discussion group (n = 68) in which the malicious intent was present but not the focus. RESULTS: As expected, interpersonal trust increased with group satisfaction. Contrary to our expectations, there was an increase in the neutral condition, but there was not the expected decrease in the harmful-intention groups. No increase occurred in sensitivity to injustice in the malicious-intention groups; in the neutral condition a comparatively stronger decrease occurred. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the unexpected findings, the results show that short-term changes in social perception in online groups are associated with group dynamics as well as by the topic of discussion, with team satisfaction in particular playing a role in interpersonal trust.