Research from the Journal of Social Media and Society - Credibility and Teachers Disclosing Too Much on Facebook?

When the latest issue of The Journal of Social Media in Society (JSMS) posted, Stephen Smith, at the University of Arkansas and a member of the JSMS review board, responded with this gem:

          I just reposted the lead article on my FB page. There goes my credibility. :)

He was referring to Wang et al.’s Am I Disclosing Too Much? Student Perceptions of Teacher Credibility via Facebook. The research looked at almost 100 undergraduate students at a Southwest university who were asked to view teacher Facebook pages. The fake pages showed teachers (male and female) with images of alcohol consumption or emotionally-loaded writing. Wonder what constitutes emotionally-loaded writing? Here’s the prompt used in the research:

My ex and I were married for almost 28 years. I found out she was cheating on me and I stupidly let her come back with the understanding that if she did it again, we were done. Well, not even TWO years later I caught her with the same nasty filfth. I found out that she has cheated throughout the WHOLE marriage and not one of these men even compare to me!!! Not that I'm the perfect catch, but I rank waaay above these men. I don't understand men today that chase or sleep with married women. It's not like they are EVER going to leave their husbands. It makes me SICK to know that my wife didn't even have to go looking!! They were jumping at her feet, and belieeeve me she's NOWHERE close to perfect. In fact, I would say she's about 2% perfect!!! :'(

The main questions in the study were
1. How does the exposure to pictures of alcohol drinking on a teacher’s Facebook profile affect student perception of teacher credibility?
2. How does the exposure to emotionally-loaded information on a teacher’s Facebook profile affect student perception of teacher credibility?

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Flickr user Carol VanHook - no changes made to image

Here’s what they discovered. The credibility ratings of the teacher indicated that revealing information about alcohol consumption and emotional problems concerning a personal relationship negatively influence student perception of teacher credibility.

Gender differences. Male teachers were perceived more credible than female teachers in general. Emotionally-loaded self-disclosure did not influence the female teacher's credibility, but did reduce the male teacher’s credibility. Credibility was also influenced by the physical attractiveness of the teacher and the belief whether it is acceptable for a teacher to have Facebook profile.

Read the entire article, Am I Disclosing Too Much? Student Perceptions of Teacher Credibility via Facebook, in the latest issue of The Journal of Social Media and Society.

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Flickr user arvind grover - no changes made to image

So, what did you learn? If you’re a male teacher and don’t want to lose credibility, don’t post drinking pics and don’t overshare your emotions. If you’re female, avoid the alcohol pics, but you can get away with some emotionally-loaded language.

Dr. Zuoming Wang is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communication Studies, University of North Texas. Hannah Novak, Heather Scofield-Snow, Sarah Traylor, YuanYuan Zhou are graduate students in Communication Studies at the University of North Texas. Correspondence can be directed to Dr. Wang at wangz@unt.edu.