Self-Disclosure Asymmetry in Online Communities: A Challenge of Demographic Diversity

The success of online communities depends on the active engagement and strong attachment of the members. Disclosure of personal information is a commonly proposed mechanism that induces close interpersonal relationships. Therefore, a question that arises is how online communities can encourage members to disclose themselves to the community, and result in positive outcomes. Our study considers this question by examining online health communities for smoking cessation. In this research, we explored a psychological phenomenon, sell-disclosure asymmetry, wherein one member of a dyad self-disclosed his or her demographic but the other did not. We reasoned that self-disclosure asymmetry might help to explain the weakness of ties in online communities that are comprised of diverse strangers. Furthermore, we observed substantial self-disclosure inhibition in the online communities that we studied, primarily in the form of asymmetric or one-sided self-disclosure. When there was an obvious minority on a demographic, minority members of dyads chose to conceal this demographic from majority members.