Attraction depending on the level of abstraction of the character descriptions

With the recent expansion of social networking sites, we have increasing opportunities to evaluate other people by reading their profiles without interacting with them. Therefore, it is important to examine the factors in profiles that affect interpersonal attraction. The uncertainty reduction theory assumes that when uncertainty about a person decreases, they will be evaluated as more attractive. Most studies examining the relationship between uncertainty and attraction have focused on the effect of the amount of information that participants can access. However, only a few studies have examined the qualitative aspects of expression (i.e., how information is described). Therefore, in the present study, we will investigate the effect of abstractness of expression in profiles on the attraction of the target person. We hypothesize that: 1) a person described in concrete expressions would be perceived as more attractive because concrete expressions contain more information than abstract expressions, and 2) the level of uncertainty would mediate this effect. To test these hypotheses, we will conduct an experiment with 500 native adult Japanese speakers.