The Social Function of Autobiographical Stories in the Personal and Virtual World: An Initial Investigation

Receiving another's autobiographical story may serve to elicit feelings of liking and empathy for the story sharer. Research has mostly examined social functions of autobiographical stories for in-person communications. The current experiment (N = 60) examined whether levels of liking, closeness, and empathy felt for a stranger (female confederate) after receiving her story depended on if (a) the story was received in-person or through instant message (IM), and (b) the story was positive or negative. Liking and having empathy for the stranger was higher in the in-person conditions compared to IM conditions. This effect was mediated by how engaged participants were with the story. Participants liked the stranger more after receiving the positive autobiographical story, but they felt more empathy toward her after the negative autobiographical story. The discussion considers parameters of the communication platform and people's perceptions of stories as explanations for the results. Limitations are considered.