• DOI:10.1111/1540-4560.00246
• Corpus ID: 12086933

Relationship formation on the Internet: What's the big attraction?

@article{McKenna2002RelationshipFO,
  title={Relationship formation on the Internet: What's the big attraction?},
  author={Katelyn Y. A. McKenna and Amie S. Green and Marci Elizabeth Joy Gleason},
  journal={Journal of Social Issues},
  year={2002},
  volume={58},
  pages={9-31}
}

• Katelyn Y. A. McKenna, Amie S. Green, M. Gleason
• Published 2002
• Psychology, Business
• Journal of Social Issues

We hypothesized that people who can better disclose their “true” or inner self to others on the Internet than in face-to-face settings will be more likely to form close relationships on-line and will tend to bring those virtual relationships into their “real” lives. Study 1, a survey of randomly selected Internet newsgroup posters, showed that those who better express their true self over the Internet were more likely than others to have formed close on-line relationships and moved these friendships to a face-to-face basis. Study 2 revealed that the majority of these close Internet relationships were still intact 2 years later. Finally, a laboratory experiment found that undergraduates liked each other more following an Internet compared to a face-to-face initial meeting.