Extremes of Online Interpersonal Relationships
Brian ColemanAngela Lutheran
April 19 2012
Survey Design
• Taken from Pew Internet surveys– Princeton University
• Maximal 55 questions*• Question Style– Yes or no– Likert scale– Dimensional analysis
Survey Participants
37%
41%
8%
7% 2%
3% 2%
Age Range
15-2021-2526-3031-3536-4041-4546-50
• Not Compensated• Anonymous honesty
Race
79
8 3 1
Caucasian
African American
Asian
Multiracial
By # out of 91 Total Participants
Gender Orientation Demographics
Extremes via Survey
Linking Research & our Participants
“Holds more weight with age”
Other Interesting Outlier
• Sexual Orientation & Exploration– Male– Prefers Men– Is married– Identifies as heterosexual– Somewhat agreed that some
people who use online dating lie about whether they are married
Correlation between Responses?
Ross M. (2005) found that even TRUST and INTIMACY are heightened when communicating online versus face to face.
Characteristics of the Sex Extreme
Consistent with Other Researchers
VS. Romantic seeker as examined in Bauermeister, Leslie-Santana, Johns, & Pingel’s (2010)
Strengths of Survey
Limitations of Survey
1. Large Sample Size2. Internal Validity for Constructs
3. Longitudinal comparison 4. Further information from outliers
LACKS:
Conclusion
• Our survey addressed not only extremes of online interpersonal relationships
• But also, contained outliers that have been backed by psychological literature
• As with every experiment, this study can be replicated and improved to produce stronger results and to gain new insight