Abstract
This research examined how certain features of online date-finding systems affect the types of message strategies users generate to refuse requests for romantic dates. An experiment analyzed how 190 participants rejected a date request from a member of the opposite sex. Politeness strategies varied as a function of the relationship between the requester and rejector (acquaintance vs. stranger) and the type of media (email vs. online dating messaging service). Results illuminate effects of interface characteristics and dyads’ relationship type on date refusal messages. Online daters exploited certain communication features provided by dating website messaging services which allow new ways for romantic refusals to be performed that were not previously available in face-to-face communication or earlier forms of computer-mediated communication.
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