Computer-Mediated Communication

1. Computer-Mediated Communication Self-presentation, interpersonal perception, and deception 30 January 2012

2. The basic stuff: readings, website, etc… Office hours:305A South HallWednesday 2:00 to 3:30 pm Course reader — for what’s not onlineAt Copy Central (2560 Bancroft at Telegraph) Class mailing list (directions on course homepage) i216@ischool.berkeley.edu Web site — syllabus and readings (password)http://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i216/s13/ Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

3. Weekly reviews • One short review required per week. • “Short but informative.” Think of a good online review (Yelp, Amazon.com, etc.). A few paragraphs is sufficient. Be honest but be specific. • Critique, explore, examine — no need to summarize. • Due by 5pm every Tuesday. No Exceptions! • Reviews are an important part of discussion. We will wrap them into our lectures and slides. • 30% of your grade — can’t pass the class without them. • Course password: ************ Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

4. Mailing List:i216@ischool.berkeley.edu https://calmail.berkeley.edu/manage/list/listinfo/i216@ischool.berkeley.edu Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

5. Identity: “Who am I?” Identity consists of personal identity + social identity • Social identity often based on group affiliations Paradigm shift in conceptions of identity — Modern(Enlightenment through 20th century) • Fixed, stable, unitary Post-Modern (now) • Fluid, multiple, socially constructed • Different roles in different settings: “One wakes up as a lover, makes breakfast as a mother, and drives to work as a lawyer.”— Sherry Turkle • Different contexts make different aspects of our identity more salient: e.g., a classroom, party, church, or family dinner. Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

6. Identity Theory (Sociology) Identity Theory (e.g., Stryker 1980) Individuals have “role identities”: character and the role an individual devises as an occupant of a particular social position. ‘Self’ is hierarchical ordering of identities by salience. The greater the commitment on an identity, the greater the salience of the identity. Salience of identity influences behavioral choices in a situation. Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

7. When and where do you “activate” your identity? Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

8. Social Identity Theory (Psychology) CORFing!!! Photo credit: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/10176597-419/kyle-williams-fumbles-away-49ers-chance-at-super-bowl.html Social Identity Theory (e.g., Tajfel et al. 1981; Turner 1985) How group membership and “belongingness” have consequences for interpersonal and intergroup relations. As one looks for a positive sense of self, they compare their group with other groups and tend to create a favorable distinction for their own group Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

9. “Minimal Group” Paradigm Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

10. Identity and CMC selection and use Internet Relay Chat (IRC) AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

11. Identity and the internet • Disembodiment: identity/soul/spirit separate from physical body • CMC allows us to adopt identities independent from our bodies (and the markers they contain) • Sherry Turkle (1995): “[On the Internet] you can be whoever you want to be. You can completely redefine yourself if you want. [People] don’t look at your body and make assumptions. They don’t hear your accent and make assumptions. All they see are your words.” Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

12. Self-presentation and identity • Symbolic markersexpress our identity to others —and help us make sense of it ourselves • Signals of who we are (or want to be, or want people to think we are) • Offline: clothes, hair, body modifications • Online? • Identity is socially constructed and informed by our relations with others — what they think of us, what we think of them, how we think of ourselves. Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

13. A brief introduction to Symbolic Interaction “The character of interaction as it takes place between human beings.” Herbert Blumer (1900-1987) developed much of the sociological approach to SI Long history of development in both philosophy and sociology • In essence: people act toward things based on the meaning those things have for them; and these meanings are derived from social interaction and modified through interpretation” Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

14. An example: George Herbert Mead’s “Looking Glass Self” • Individuals tend to act according to the view that they believe society has for them. Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

15. Core Features of SI Symbols… Change… Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

16. Core Features of SI Interaction… Empirical… However: note the focus on the micro-level Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

17. Goffman’s approach and focus How individuals create and maintain their “social self” Dramaturgical approach: Uses theater and drama as a metaphor for how we develop and present ourselves Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

18. http://media.knoxnews.com/media/img/photos/2010/08/11/090110bjheroleahy_t607.jpghttp://media.knoxnews.com/media/img/photos/2010/08/11/090110bjheroleahy_t607.jpg Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

19. Frontstage and backstage Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

20. More key concepts from Goffman “Sincere” vs. “cynical” “Idealization” “Definition of the situation” “Expressions given” “Expressions given off” “Impression management” Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

21. What is the “setting” in CMC interaction? Where does it come from? Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

22. Expressions “given” and “given off” Goffman discusses two types of expressions: “given” (intentional) “given off” (unintentional) Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

23. “Although ‘The Presentation of Self in Every Day Life’ is considered one of the most influential texts in sociology, by today's standards it reads more like philosophy than social science. Goffman's premise is ambitious – he seeks to describe all of human social behavior using the metaphor of the theater. But in doing so he makes broad sweeping claims about how people regard themselves and relate to others, while offering little in the way of evidence to support his premise. What evidence he does provide is not empirical…” -Kate “The article also calls into play the importance of dramatic self-expression in the formation of a social persona and piques my own interest in exploring the a broader range of methods for allowing an individual to "self-express" through digital communications. I agree that the article makes some pretty sweeping claims about human behavior. He also speaks in stereotypes that one might expect to find on Mad Men…Nonetheless, I think the particular lens with which he views social behavior can prompt interesting questions in regards to the way we present ourselves to others through various media and I appreciate it in that regard.”-Laura Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

24. “ The online world is a wholly built environment. The architects of a virtual space — from the software designers to the site administrators — shape the community in a more profound way than do their real-world counterpart. People eat, sleep, and work in buildings; the buildings affect how happily they do these things. But the buildings do not completely control their perception of the world. In the electronic domain, the design of the environment is everything. ” — Donath Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

25. Signaling • Assessment signals • Handicap (costly) signals • Index signals • Conventional signals • Cost of signaling, cost of assessing • What are some more examples of signals? • At a bar, on IM, in online dating, on Facebook? Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

26. Costs and benefits for sender Costs • Production • Risk • Punishment Benefits • Signaling: Changing observer’s beliefs • Functional: Hedonic and utilitarian Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

27. Costs and benefits for receiver Costs • Assessment • Being deceived by a dishonest signal Benefits • Signaling: Learning about the sender • Functional: Again, hedonic and utilitarian Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

28. How does signaling differ online and offline? Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

29. “Thinking zoologically allows her to offer the concept of the cost of communication, which she cites from evolutionary biology. Such an approach does, I think, offer an interesting way of conceptualizing signs; she cites Goldberg on gang tattoos, an example of a sign that is reliable because it is ‘high cost.’ … Yet I want to offer a deeper critique of this biological approach to human culture. I think it fundamentally misunderstands, at least in some cases, the nature of ‘meaning.’” - Kyle “While it is true that the ‘meaning’ components and the interpretation/signal-noise ratio elements of the theory is under discussed and perhaps over-simplified (perhaps also due to the draft nature of the chapter?), the core of the theory possesses a simplicity of explanation that is theoretically attractive; as detailed, it forms an abstract skeleton on which more nuanced cases can be fleshed out and reified.”- Weiyi Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

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31. Just for fun • Passport to the Pub: A guide to British pub etiquette • http://www.sirc.org/publik/pub.html • Guide to Flirting • http://www.sirc.org/publik/flirt.html Both from Social Issues Research Centre. Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

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33. Deception Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

34. Digital deception “The intentional control of information in a technologically mediated message to create a false belief in the receiver of the message.” • Deliberate • Designed to mislead or create a false belief • Information communicated through technological mediation Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

35. Identity…ambiguity vs. deception Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

36. Expression and Interpretation Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication Recall: Donath (1999) ties both voice and language to Erving Goffman’s concepts of “expressions given” and “expressions given off”:

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38. For Example: Deception, Norms and Perception in Photos • Loi Sessions Goulet’s study of MySpace photos (2009) • Users who post these photographs are conforming to a social trend at the expense of their individuality • The presentation of these photographs is narcissistic • These photographs purposefully conceal the body The classic “down shirt” MySpace photo. Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

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40. Observed Self-Presentation Profile-based Self-Presentation • In lab measure: • Height • Weight • Age • Income • Photograph Cross-Validation Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

41. Deception? (Hancock et al. 2007) Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

42. Deception? (Hancock et al. 2007) Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

43. Deception? (Hancock et al. 2007) Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

44. Types of digital deception • Identity-based • Stems from false manipulation of person or organization • Message-based • Takes place in communication between dyads or larger groups Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

45. Identity-based deception • Turkle pointed out that it’s easy to assume new identities online due to anonymity and multiple modes of social interaction. • We use signals (screen names, language) to establish our identities online. • It is relatively easy to manipulate these signals to falsely represent ourselves. • Donath distinguishes between assessment and conventional signals • Assessment signals are more expensive to maintain (harder to fake) Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

46. Types of identity deception • Trolling: posing as a legitimate community member • Category deception: membership in a social group (male vs. female, black vs. white, Berkeley vs. Stanford student) • Identity concealment: deception by omission or hiding of identity information Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

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48. The Strange Case of the Electronic Lover assemblingself.blogspot.com • Male psychiatrist, Alex, created female online persona, Joan. • Formed intimate online friendships with women on CompuServe chat channels. • Initiated real-life romantic relationship with one of them (Alex “introduced” by Joan). Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

49. The Deception in the Message… Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication

50. How is deception different online and offline? Cheshire & Fiore — Computer-Mediated Communication