Abstract
The purpose of this study is to make clear shat variables influence impression formation in computer-mediated communication. The personal impressions consisted of 7 dimensions: the big five factors of personality (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness), and the communicator credibility (expertness, trust worthiness). All independent measures were composed of 27 variables of eight categories. A questionnaire of fj (from Japan) newsgroup's users was conducted by e-mail and responses of 150 users were valid. Regression analysis indicated that each personal impression was influenced by several important variables in categories of message quality evaluation, presentational style of message, perceived message function, and communication manner. We can see that impressions of communicator were formed from whatever meager cues are availabel in computer-mediated communication, even though nonverbal cues, relative to face-to-face interaction, are lacking.
