FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Irvine, Calif., Oct. 22, 2020 — Millions of adults in the U.S. join online support groups to help them attain health goals, ranging from weight loss to smoking cessation. In their quest to make connections, members have a tendency to hide demographic differences, concerned about poor social integration that will weaken interpersonal ties. However, according to a recent study led by the University of California, Irvine, sharing this information is beneficial rather than detrimental.
“Our findings indicate a striking discrepancy between people’s perception of self-disclosure effects and the reality in online support groups. Members tended to refrain from revealing when they were demographically different from their interaction partner or had overall minority status, believing it would hinder them from fitting in or relating well to others. But when members naturally engaged in communicating those details, the result was strong relationships that produced health benefits,” said Connie Pechmann, UCI professor of marketing and lead author of the study.
Hosting support groups is an important part of business for online platforms such as Facebook and Instagram because it enables advertising and promotion precisely targeted to users. However, initial interest in groups tends to wane and members disengage, so these virtual communities routinely struggle to realize their potential. “Given that people join with the explicit purpose of exchanging encouragement and engagement, the failure to build connections to help achieve goals is puzzling,” Pechmann said. “Our team examined the relationship between disclosing demographic diversity and the failure to build strong social ties in an effort to identify remedies to this problem.”
For the study – forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer Psychology – researchers analyzed user data from eight Twitter smoking cessation support groups and two lab-controlled weight loss support groups, as well as one lab-controlled COVID-19 support group. Online membership is typically more diverse than in person due to broader geographic reach. Previous studies have shown that in face-to-face interactions, demographic differences routinely hinder interpersonal connections, so when trying to fit in with others online, users may choose to avoid sharing that information.
“We discovered that connections are strengthened and goal attainment is facilitated when people naturally engage in self-disclosure in ongoing dialogue. Social ties in online groups are not weak because members are diverse but because they’re reluctant to reveal it,” Pechmann said. “A viable solution to overcoming engagement weakness is to encourage members to share personal demographic information, even if they’re different. When they do, we found, it actually breeds interpersonal connection.”
Co-investigators on the study – supported by R34 Innovation grant DA030538 from the National Institutes of Health – are Kelly EunJung Yoon, assistant professor of marketing at Virginia’s University of Mary Washington; Denis Trapido, assistant professor of management and organization at the University of Washington Bothell; and Judith J. Prochaska, professor of medicine at Stanford University.
About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 222 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit www.uci.edu.
Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.
