Similarity and Helping Behavior on the Web: The Impact of the Convergence of Surnames Between a Solicitor and a Subject in a Request Made by E-Mail

Abstract

Similarity between a solicitor and a subject traditionally enhances helping behavior. An experiment was carried out in a computer-mediated context. Fifty students received an e-mail containing a 40 questions survey on their food habits which required 15-20 minutes of their time to respond. This questionnaire came from a hypothetical student of the university in which the subjects were registered. In half of the cases, the surname of the solicitor, which appeared in his/her electronic address, was the same than the surname of the target. Results show that compliance to the request was significantly higher in the same surnames condition than in the different surnames condition. The response delay was significantly shorter in the same-surnames condition than in control condition.

Note: Downloadable document is in French.

Keywords: Similarity, CMC, Compliance to a request