Psychology of Impression Formation

   Consultants eager to help us create the right impression abound, whether the goal is to impress a personnel officer, get elected to public office, make a sale over the telephone, or get a date. The tips they offer might include "Show confidence with a strong handshake" for a job interview, or "Show interest with good eye contact" for the potential dating partner. The verbal and nonverbal nuances associated with our real-life personas - appropriate for each individual on different occasions with different audiences - have been explored in great depth in popular magazine articles, and also in psychological research.

   Most of us enter cyberspace, however, giving little thought to the online persona - how we come across to the people with whom we interact online. Many times those people are already known to us because they are friends, family members, or business associates, and they will interpret whatever we project through email, discussion groups, or personal Web pages within the context of the familiar real-life personas. If we sound harsh or abrupt in an email, they may temper any conclusions based on what they already know about us. Increasingly, however, the online persona is playing a larger role in first impressions as people rely on email, Web sites, and discussion forums more for the first contact, and the phone call, letter, or face-to-face meetings less. For some Internet relationships, communication starts on the net and later develops in other environments. For others, the entire relationship never strays away from the net, not even with a phone call, so the online persona is the whole story.

   I recall receiving an email many years ago from a distant colleague I had never met in person that highlighted how clumsy we can be at constructing an online persona. It was 13 screen pages long and closed with one of those automated signatures containing the sender's name, a string of letters announcing his many degrees and certifications, a list of academic affiliations, and a lofty quotation surrounded by asterisks. I was tempted to click delete immediately, but then I thought, he is struggling with his online persona, just as we all are, and without the aid of the image consultants. I don't know how to address a stranger online, how to make the impression I want to make, and I might be making similar blunders. I printed it out and read his missive.