Emotional Expressions and First Impression Formation in Social Media Profiles

This study conducted an online experiment with 384 participants to explore the mechanisms through which viewers form initial impressions of strangers based on their emotional self-disclosure in social media profiles. The findings revealed that positive emotional expressions fostered a higher degree of interpersonal liking and trust than negative emotional expressions. The relationship between emotional valence and interpersonal liking was partially mediated by perceived appropriateness and perceived similarity. Judgments of interpersonal trust were fully mediated by the perceived appropriateness and perceived similarity of emotional expressions. The study further discovered an interaction between emotional valence and intensity, such that the effect of emotional valence on perceived similarity became more pronounced when emotional intensity was high. The findings underscored the significant influence of emotional expressions on the development of interpersonal liking and trust on social media. The study also specified two inferential processes (perceived appropriateness and perceived similarity) underlying these effects and highlighted the moderating role of emotional intensity. The theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.