Users in social networking sites, such as Facebook, are increasingly receiving
friend requests from strangers. This study examines the effects of the Big Five
personality traits (Neurotics vs. Extroversion vs. Openness vs. Conscientiousness
vs. Agreeableness) and strangers’ gender in affecting Facebook users’
decisions to accept (or ignore) the stranger’s friend request. Results
showed that gender of the stranger and the personality match between participant
and stranger jointly affect the decision to accept the stranger as friend
on Facebook. Most of the participants accepted the stranger’s friend request
based on textual cues that were displayed in the friend request message. This
finding supported Social Information Processing theory, suggesting that impression
formation of the stranger was not constrained to the lack of nonverbal
cues online. Moreover, participants were more likely to accept the stranger’s
friend request when the participant’s and stranger’s personalities
matched. This effect was more pronounced when the stranger was a female.
Participants accepted female stranger’s friend request due to the inflated perception
of stereotypical female characteristics, which supports the Hyperpersonal
Perspective.
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