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Communication Research
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Effects of the Influence Agent’s Sex and Self-Confidence on Informational Social Influence in Computer-Mediated Communication:

Quantitative Versus Verbal Presentation

Eun-Ju Lee

Three experiments examined the effects of the influence agent’s inferred sex and self-proclaimed competence on informational social influence in computermediated communication. In 2 (Participant Sex: Male vs. Female) 2 (Partner’s Character:Male vs. Female) 2 (Partner’s Self-Confidence: High vs. Low) mixed-design experiments, participants played a trivia game with an anonymous partner. When the partner’s 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, partner’s character did not affect conformity to partner’s suggestions. By contrast, when participants’ character correctly represented their sex (Experiment 3), partner’s character, albeit arbitrarily assigned and thus not diagnostic of the person’s 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

Communication Research, Vol. 32, No. 1, 29-58 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0093650204271398
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