Browsing by Author "Muscanell, Nicole Lori"

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    Computer-mediated persuasion: emoticons as a proxy for nonverbal behavior
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2009) Muscanell, Nicole Lori; Guadagno, Rosanna E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    The current research examined whether or not emoticons (in this case, smiley faces) could be used as proxies for nonverbal behavior when inserted into email discussions. Specifically, previous research has suggested that women who are more communal and focused on forming interpersonal bonds may not be able to form such bonds easily when communicating via email due to the lack of nonverbal cues (Guadagno & Cialdini, 2002; 2007). It was predicted that by inserting emoticons into a persuasive email communication, women would be more open to persuasion compared to women who saw no emoticons, whereas we did not expect this to matter for men. A total of 98 (47 men, 51 women) undergraduate students completed the study. Contrary to predictions, results indicated that using a verbal equivalent of the emoticon in an email discussion actually produced more favorability towards the message for both men and women. Additionally, results indicated that individuals' level of femininity predicted attitude towards the topic. Also, the verbal equivalent proxy affected positive mood, which may also help explain the results. Implications for persuasion vial email will be discussed.
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    Fired for what you post online?: a self-regulatory perspective on inappropriate online self-presentation
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Muscanell, Nicole Lori; Guadagno, Rosanna E.; Hamilton, James C.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Social media offer the ability to communicate simultaneously to a diverse audience. This creates a risk of sharing inappropriate information that may lead to negative consequences. The present research examined whether failures in self-regulation can explain why some individuals share inappropriate information through social media. Study 1 demonstrated that trait self-control predicted disclosure of self-damaging information on social networking profiles. Individuals low in self-control were more likely to report having posted this type of information. Study 2 tested the effectiveness of an ego-depletion manipulation to be utilized in subsequent studies. In Study 3, individuals with depleted regulatory resources were more likely create mock social networking profiles containing potentially damaging information, regardless of their audience (no audience vs. a low risk audience vs. a high risk audience). Study 4 demonstrated that creating a profile to be seen by multiple audiences influenced performance on a subsequent self-regulatory task. Specifically, creating a profile for multiple social networking audiences led to more time spent creating the profile and worse performance on test questions, suggesting that presentation to multiple audiences may consume more regulatory resources. Finally, Study 5 examined whether being depleted (or not) affected how participants think about their social networking audience (i.e., do they narrowly focus on a small set of social networking friends when they are depleted?). Results reveal that this was not the case. Overall, findings indicate that failures in self-regulation may explain to some extent why individuals share inappropriate information via social media.