اثر دوستان سایبری بر تنهایی و اضطراب اجتماعی: تفاوت بین گروه های خودارزیابی جذابیت فیزیکی بالا و پایین

This study examined the causal relationships between the number of cyber-friends participants had and their social anxiety or loneliness. We predicted that participants who gave low self-evaluations of physical attractiveness would be able to lower their social anxiety or reduce their loneliness through Internet-based interpersonal relationships. Also, such effects would be more prominent if the cyber-friends were of the opposite sex. A two-wave panel study was conducted with 178 Japanese undergraduate students (63 men and 115 women; mean age was 20.29). Results showed that for those who gave a low evaluation of their physical attractiveness, having a large number of cyber-friends lowered their social anxiety and reduced the loneliness felt in friendships. These effects differed by gender of the cyber-friends. In particular, for those who gave a low evaluation of their physical attractiveness, having a large number of cyber-friends of the same sex had a positive effect on social anxiety. In contrast, cyber-friends of the opposite sex had no effect on social anxiety, but had a complex effect upon loneliness. Namely, while a large number of cyber-friends of the opposite sex reduced the loneliness felt in friendships, it also heightened the loneliness felt in family relationships. Implications of these results for further research and practice are provided.

As the use of the Internet has spread, there are now more ways to establish interpersonal relationships. People who have never met each other can “meet” on the Internet and deepen their relationship through communication via Internet tools such as e-mail and chat rooms. These Internet-based friends are called “cyber-friends”. Although there are some argument about the quality of relationships with these cyber-friends (Cummings et al., 2002 and McKenna and Bargh, 2000), there have been several studies suggesting positive effects of cyber-friends. Such as a panel study suggesting that the number of cyber-friends has an effect on subjective well-being and social efficacy (Ando et al., 2004), and an experimental study which confirmed that interaction with cyber-friends had an effect of elevating the sociality of shy individuals (Sakamoto et al., 2002). In this study, we examined what sort of people exhibited more conspicuous effects on their psychological health due to interaction with cyber-friends as evidenced in such prior studies. Below we will conduct a review of the prior studies regarding what sorts of people more easily reap the benefits of cyber-friendship, various theories on the properties of cyber-friendship, and the effects of cyber-friendship on psychological health and sociality.

In contrast to several findings of negative effects in the high self-evaluated attractiveness group, some positive effects were found in the low self-evaluated attractiveness group. Namely, for those who gave themselves a low evaluation of physical attractiveness, having a large number of cyber-friends had positive effects on social anxiety and loneliness felt in friendships. These results imply that for these individuals, experiences of interpersonal relationships with cyber-friends could help them acquire social skills. Also, for them, cyber-friends functioned as a means of reducing the loneliness felt in friendships. Furthermore, the findings clarify prior research indicating that the effects of cyber-friends on confidence in interpersonal relationships or psychological health differ by gender of the cyber-friends (Ando et al., 2004). In particular, the findings of Ando et al. (2004) are only supported for individuals who gave a low evaluation of their own physical attractiveness. For these individuals, having a large number of cyber-friends of the same sex had a positive effect on social anxiety, but had little effect on loneliness. Cyber-friends of the opposite sex had no effect on social anxiety, but had a complex effect upon loneliness. Namely, having a large number of cyber-friends of the opposite sex had a positive effect on the loneliness felt in friendships, but it also had a negative effect on the loneliness felt in family relationships. Future studies should examine these complicated results to offer sufficient explanation. As for the causal relationships in the opposite direction, this study has indicated that individuals who gave a low evaluation of their own physical attractiveness tried to make more cyber-friends when they felt a high degree of loneliness. To summarize these findings, we can reach the conclusion that individuals who gave low evaluations of their own physical attractiveness benefited more from cyber-relationships than individuals who gave high evaluations of their own physical attractiveness. Also, the findings showed that for these individuals, cyber-friends can be valuable human resources for reducing loneliness. It should be noted that the participants of this study were around 20 years old, and in general, the gender of cyber-friends was particularly important to them. Therefore, for future studies, the age range of the participant group must be expanded. Also, the findings regarding those who gave high evaluations of their own physical attractiveness must be further studied and interpreted in the future.