Worth the wait?: The effect of responsiveness on interpersonal attraction among known acquaintances

Matthew Heston; Jeremy Birnholtz

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-63874-4_13

Worth the wait? The effect of responsiveness on interpersonal attraction among known acquaintances

Matthew Heston^*, Jeremy Birnholtz

^*Corresponding author for this work

Communication Studies

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

As users adopt new communication technologies, they also develop new norms and expectations about responsiveness: the time it takes an interaction partner to respond to a message. Prior work suggests violation of responsiveness expectations can lead to negative evaluations, but this has not been studied within the modern communication ecosystem, where ubiquitous mobile devices and connectivity enable constant contact with friends and colleagues. We present results from a lab-based experiment examining how violation of such expectations can affect interpersonal attraction. In studying pairs of known acquaintances, we find that low-responsive partners are rated lower in social attraction than high-responsive partners. We also provide an exploratory analysis of chat logs from the experiment which indicates that responsiveness behavior is part of an interactive process where parties involved negotiate for each other’s attention over time.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Collaboration and Technology - 23rd International Conference, CRIWG 2017, Proceedings
Editors	Julita Vassileva, Sergio F. Ochoa, Tomoo Inoue, Carl Gutwin
Publisher	Springer Verlag
Pages	164-179
Number of pages	16
ISBN (Print)	9783319638737
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63874-4_13
State	Published - 2017
Event	23rd International Conference on Collaboration Technologies, CRIWG 2017 - Saskatoon, Canada Duration: Aug 9 2017 → Aug 11 2017

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	10391 LNCS
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Other

Other	23rd International Conference on Collaboration Technologies, CRIWG 2017
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Saskatoon
Period	8/9/17 → 8/11/17

Keywords

Interpersonal communication
Messaging
Responsiveness

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Theoretical Computer Science
Computer Science(all)

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-319-63874-4_13

Cite this

Heston, M., & Birnholtz, J. (2017). Worth the wait? The effect of responsiveness on interpersonal attraction among known acquaintances. In J. Vassileva, S. F. Ochoa, T. Inoue, & C. Gutwin (Eds.), Collaboration and Technology - 23rd International Conference, CRIWG 2017, Proceedings (pp. 164-179). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 10391 LNCS). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63874-4_13

Heston, Matthew ; Birnholtz, Jeremy. / Worth the wait? The effect of responsiveness on interpersonal attraction among known acquaintances. Collaboration and Technology - 23rd International Conference, CRIWG 2017, Proceedings. editor / Julita Vassileva ; Sergio F. Ochoa ; Tomoo Inoue ; Carl Gutwin. Springer Verlag, 2017. pp. 164-179 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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abstract = "As users adopt new communication technologies, they also develop new norms and expectations about responsiveness: the time it takes an interaction partner to respond to a message. Prior work suggests violation of responsiveness expectations can lead to negative evaluations, but this has not been studied within the modern communication ecosystem, where ubiquitous mobile devices and connectivity enable constant contact with friends and colleagues. We present results from a lab-based experiment examining how violation of such expectations can affect interpersonal attraction. In studying pairs of known acquaintances, we find that low-responsive partners are rated lower in social attraction than high-responsive partners. We also provide an exploratory analysis of chat logs from the experiment which indicates that responsiveness behavior is part of an interactive process where parties involved negotiate for each other{\textquoteright}s attention over time.",

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note = "Funding Information: This research was funded by the National Science Foundation award IIS–217143. The authors would like to acknowledge undergraduate research assistants Ada Jing and Sarah Shi for their assistance with this project. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Springer International Publishing AG 2017.; 23rd International Conference on Collaboration Technologies, CRIWG 2017 ; Conference date: 09-08-2017 Through 11-08-2017",

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Heston, M & Birnholtz, J 2017, Worth the wait? The effect of responsiveness on interpersonal attraction among known acquaintances. in J Vassileva, SF Ochoa, T Inoue & C Gutwin (eds), Collaboration and Technology - 23rd International Conference, CRIWG 2017, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 10391 LNCS, Springer Verlag, pp. 164-179, 23rd International Conference on Collaboration Technologies, CRIWG 2017, Saskatoon, Canada, 8/9/17. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63874-4_13

Worth the wait? The effect of responsiveness on interpersonal attraction among known acquaintances. / Heston, Matthew; Birnholtz, Jeremy.
Collaboration and Technology - 23rd International Conference, CRIWG 2017, Proceedings. ed. / Julita Vassileva; Sergio F. Ochoa; Tomoo Inoue; Carl Gutwin. Springer Verlag, 2017. p. 164-179 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 10391 LNCS).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

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N2 - As users adopt new communication technologies, they also develop new norms and expectations about responsiveness: the time it takes an interaction partner to respond to a message. Prior work suggests violation of responsiveness expectations can lead to negative evaluations, but this has not been studied within the modern communication ecosystem, where ubiquitous mobile devices and connectivity enable constant contact with friends and colleagues. We present results from a lab-based experiment examining how violation of such expectations can affect interpersonal attraction. In studying pairs of known acquaintances, we find that low-responsive partners are rated lower in social attraction than high-responsive partners. We also provide an exploratory analysis of chat logs from the experiment which indicates that responsiveness behavior is part of an interactive process where parties involved negotiate for each other’s attention over time.

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Heston M, Birnholtz J. Worth the wait? The effect of responsiveness on interpersonal attraction among known acquaintances. In Vassileva J, Ochoa SF, Inoue T, Gutwin C, editors, Collaboration and Technology - 23rd International Conference, CRIWG 2017, Proceedings. Springer Verlag. 2017. p. 164-179. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-63874-4_13