Social-Psychological Influences on Opinion Expression in Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Communication

TLDR

The study investigates how contextual setting (face‑to‑face versus online chat) and social‑psychological factors influence individuals’ willingness to express opinions. Using a web‑based survey experiment, participants were asked whether they would express an opinion in either a face‑to‑face discussion group or an online chat room discussion group. Results show that print news use, fear of isolation, communication apprehension, future opinion congruency, and the communication setting predict willingness to speak out; fear of isolation’s negative effect is significantly reduced in computer‑mediated discussion, suggesting that online chat may mitigate dysfunctional social‑psychological influences and foster public deliberation.

Abstract

This study used an experiment embedded within a Web-based survey to examine the influence of contextual (i.e., face-to-face vs. online chat room discussion) and social-psychological factors on individuals' willingness to express opinions. In this experiment, respondents were asked whether they would be willing to express an opinion if they were placed in a face-to-face discussion group in one condition and in an online chat room discussion group in the other condition. Results indicate that print news use, fear of isolation, communication apprehension, future opinion congruency, and communication setting significantly predict willingness to speak out. In addition, not only did fear of isolation have a negative main effect on opinion expression, but this effect was significantly attenuated by computer-mediated discussion. Findings suggest that computer-mediated communication may avoid some of the dysfunctional social-psychological influences found in face-to-face interactions and create a forum conducive for public deliberation.