محبوبیت در شبکه های اجتماعی آنلاین: چگونه عوامل اجتماعی و صفات خلاقیت به قضاوت ما از وضعیت و علاقه مربوط می شود

We investigated how personality affects both peer-perceived popularity (status) and sociometric popularity (liking) in online social networks (OSNs). Self-ratings of agentic (e.g., extraversion), communal (e.g., agreeableness), and creativity traits (e.g., openness) were collected from 103 OSN profile owners (targets). Unacquainted perceivers provided status and liking judgments based on either targets’ full OSN profiles or profile pictures. Independent coders assessed behavioral cues (e.g., attractiveness) from targets’ OSN profiles. Results showed that targets scoring high on agency were ascribed a high status (without necessarily being liked), whereas targets scoring high on creativity or communion were liked. Brunswikian lens model analyses revealed mediating behavioral cues. Analyses based on profile pictures suggested that the differentiated impact of personality on popularity is a fast process.

Social connections are fundamental to survival (Wesselmann, Cardoso, Slater, & Williams, 2012). Research suggests that individuals’ fitness and gene frequencies are changed through their social interaction partners’ behaviors (social selection; Alexander, 2005 and Nesse, 2007). At the beginning of any social contact stands a first impression of our counterpart. People spontaneously like certain individuals, whereas they just as easily may dislike others. In this paper, we aim to promote the understanding of the personality–popularity link at zero acquaintance, that is: who is popular, and who is not? Specifically, we differentiate between two faces of popularity judgments during first encounters: (a) whom an individual judges as being popular among others (peer-perceived popularity, i.e., status), and (b) whom an individual personally likes (sociometric popularity, i.e., liking). This distinction is important with regard to the consequences of our first impressions. Initiating contact with high-status individuals may be useful for gathering and distributing information as these people are well connected to others. Relationship initiation with people whom one personally likes may end up in a close friendship or a romantic partnership. Based on a fine-grained investigation of online social network (OSN) profiles, we examined (a) how targets’ personality traits influence first impressions of status and liking, (b) which concrete behaviors mediate the personality-status and personality-liking links, respectively, and (c) whether reduced information (“thin slices”) produces similar personality–popularity links.