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DOI: 10.1177/0093650204271398 Effects of the Influence Agents Sex and Self-Confidence on Informational Social Influence in Computer-Mediated Communication:Quantitative Versus Verbal PresentationThree experiments examined the effects of the influence agents inferred sex and self-proclaimed competence on informational social influence in computermediated communication. In 2 (Participant Sex: Male vs. Female) 2 (Partners Character:Male vs. Female) 2 (Partners Self-Confidence: High vs. Low) mixed-design experiments, participants played a trivia game with an anonymous partner. When the partners confidence was presented in quantitative form, its effect on conformity was more pronounced among men than among women (Experiment 1), whereas verbally expressed confidence induced stronger effects among women than among men (Experiment 2). In both experiments, where participants own character mismatched their sex, partners character did not affect conformity to partners suggestions. By contrast, when participants character correctly represented their sex (Experiment 3), partners character, albeit arbitrarily assigned and thus not diagnostic of the persons sex, moderated conformity such that male-charactered partners elicited greater conformity than did female-charactered partners.
Key Words: sex informational social influence quantitative vs. verbal data presentation computer-mediated communication expectation states theory social identity model of deindividuation effects
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