SELF-DISCLOSURE

The act of revealing personal information about oneself to others is commonly referred to as self-disclosure (Archer, 1980, as cited in Joinson, 1999), and is crucial to the development of personal relationships, (e.g., Laurenceau, Barrett, & Pietromonaco, 1998). Both experimental and anecdotal evidence suggest that general CMC can be characterized as containing high levels of self-disclosure (Joinson, 1999, 2004), and research shows that people often reveal more about themselves via a computer than face-to-face (Joinson, 2001a; Joinson, 2001b). Few would have predicted the popularity of clumsy user-interfaces such as SMS (mobile phones), chat or instant messaging for highly emotional and intimate communication for better and worse (e.g., flirting, bullying). These examples of increased self-disclosure, along with a related concept—disinhibition—are often attributed to the lack of social restraints that accompany CMC compared to face-to-face communication. The Reduced Social Cues Model (Spears, Lea, & Postmes, 2001) offers an interesting explanation for this. This model emphasizes the role of reduced nonverbal cues and contextual information online compared to face-to-face communication. Although the model has mostly been applied to "deindividuation"¹ and corresponding "antinormative behaviour," it is equally interesting in light of more positive social behaviour. For example, several claim that new, meaningful relationships can be formed online because of, not despite, its known limitations (e.g., lack of nonverbal cues) (McKenna & Bargh, 1998; McKenna, Green, & Gleason, 2002; Tidwell & Walther, 2002).

Health-Related Self-Disclosure

The above findings from more traditional research on CMC appear equally relevant for communication about health-issues. Joinson (1999) outlined some of the studies illustrating these issues. For example, medical patients tend to report more symptoms and undesirable behaviours when interviewed by computer than face-to-face (Greist, Klein, & VanCura, 1973). Clients at a sexual disease clinic report more sexual partners, more previous visits, and more symptoms to a computer than to a doctor (Robinson & West, 1992). Ferriter (1993) found that pre-clinical psychiatric interviews conducted using CMC compared to face-to-face yielded more honest, candid answers. In the U.K., the Samaritans report that although only 20% of telephone callers report suicidal feelings, this number increases to around 50% of e-mail contacts (The Scotsman, 24, Feb., 1999, cited in Joinson, 1999). Also, a study of Norwegian online mental health forums found that 45% of those who participated (N=492) claimed they had never discussed the same issues with anyone outside the Internet (Kummervold, Gammon, Bergvik, Johnsen, Hasvold, & Rosenvinge, 2002). Since the quality of healthcare depends on the quality of information provided by patients, these examples are worth understanding in more depth.