I Don’t Like Them Because They Don’t Like Me: Recipro-hate in CMC

The lack of traditional social cues and greater time given to respond in computer chat mediums afford individuals avenues for careful self-censorship and planning in their actions, words, and immediate responses. Previous literature has examined this tendency through the use of fake email correspondence. As participants typed their responses, recordings of their typing process were coded for “editing” behaviors, such as destructive backspaces that indicate the use of selective self-representation. This study sought to use modern technology to replicate these findings and, for the first time, utilize real-time feedback to manipulate this self-censorship process through on-screen ratings. Notably, during a conversation with a confederate in which ratings were exchanged, participants receiving negative ratings sent back significantly lower ratings than those receiving positive ratings despite no significant difference in the tone or topic of conversation across conditions. These participants also reported that the confederate was significantly less authentic, despite the participants in this condition exhibiting more self-censoring “editing” behavior in their messages.