Abstract
This experimental study investigates how novelty and appropri- ateness – the two criteria of creativity – affect impressions formed of online dating profile owners. More specifically, it examines how both criteria influence perceived romantic attrac- tiveness, and whether expectancy violations and person percep- tions (i.e., originality and oddness) mediate these effects. Participants (N = 295) were members of a dating platform who were presented with dating profile texts that met one or both criteria: (a) not novel and appropriate, (b) novel and appropriate, or (c) novel and inappropriate. In line with the expectations, results show that novel texts are less expected, and that their writers are perceived as more original and, in turn, as more romantically attractive. Writers of novel and non-novel texts are evaluated as equally attractive though, suggesting that appropriateness is a stronger determinant of romantic attrac- tiveness. That is, novel texts that are inappropriate violate expectations more negatively than those that are appropriate, increasing oddness and, accordingly, decreasing romantic attractiveness. Findings suggest that novelty and appropriate- ness are two important creativity dimensions that explain effects of dating profile texts on impression formation. Moreover, we show that the expectancy violations theory is a useful framework to study creativity and impression formation in online dating.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 842-868 |
| Number of pages | 27 |
| Journal | Media Psychology |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Funding
Tess van der Zanden was affiliated with the Department of Communication and Cognition of the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Tilburg University, at the time of data collection and is currently affiliated with the Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University. The authors would like to thank Parship NL for their assistance with participant recruitment, Jan de Wit for thinking along and Milou van Gogh for her help with material preparation and data collection.
| Funders |
|---|
| Department of Communication and Cognition of the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Tilburg University |
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