Jeffrey A. Hall

• PhD
• Professor at University of Kansas

While romantic relationships are often perceived as a significant milestone, there is increasing evidence of the value of friends within one's network. The present study explored an often-overlooked intersection between romantic relationships and friendships: people who view their romantic partner as their best friend. Utilizing the convoy model of...

After defining five possible pathways to increase belonging through social media use, this narrative review summarizes the research on social media and loneliness. The association between social media use and loneliness is examined at the trait level and change in loneliness over time. Next, the use of social media during the COVID pandemic and its...

This viewpoint reviews the empirical evidence regarding the association between social media use and well-being, including life satisfaction and affective well-being, and the association between social media use and ill-being, including loneliness, anxiety, and depressive symptomology. To frame this discussion, this viewpoint will present 10 widely...

Sibling relationships are among the longest-lasting relationships in people’s lives. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), including voice calls, texting, and social media, help adult siblings keep in touch. The present study tests media multiplexity theory (MMT) in the context of adult sibling relationships. In the first study, a quot...

Friendship is critical for individuals’ well-being, but recent efforts to characterize Americans’ friendship have suggested that these relationships are in peril. The present study is a report on the methods and results of three surveys from the American Friendship Project (AFP). The goal of the AFP is to be the most accurate and most complete acco...

UNSTRUCTURED This viewpoint reviews the empirical evidence regarding the association between social media use and well-being, including life satisfaction and affective well-being, and the association between social media use and ill-being, including loneliness, anxiety, and depressive symptomology. To frame this discussion, this viewpoint will pres...

Relationships are influenced by how and where they begin. This chapter focuses on the initiation of romantic and non-romantic relationships (e.g., friendships), including those initiated online. We discuss what types of people are selected as friends and romantic partners as well as the role of context in initial social interaction. First, we first...

This manuscript identifies the characteristics of a social interaction or social event that make it energy intensive and explores the experience of recovering from an energy-intensive interaction. Study One (N = 309) used an inductive approach to identify social interactions or events that were energy intensive. Study Two (N = 120) used an experien...

The associations among the frequency and quality of social interactions and in-the-moment and global well-being have been well-documented. Fewer studies explore whether the content of social interactions is associated with well-being using experimental methods. Drawing from the communicate bond belong theory, seven candidate communication episodes...

A growing literature attests to the associations between social media use (SMU) and psychosocial outcomes. However, recent meta-analyses and systematic reviews indicate relatively small and inconsistent effect sizes across studies. Such reviews also indicate that measurement approaches have focused almost exclusively on self-report methodologies to...

This investigation uses the two-process model of needs to explore differences between face-to-face communication and interpersonal media in terms of belongingness need satisfaction. Using experience sampling methods, Study 1 (N = 117) explored change in feelings of loneliness and connection from interpersonal media use within a day. Study 2 (N = 1,...

Framed by need to belong theory, this study considers the role of communication modality, geographic proximity, and the number of close relationship partners to predict life satisfaction and loneliness. A quota sample of American adults (N = 1,869) completed four name generation tasks to identify up to 16 alters, resulting in four alters per partic...

Analysis of over 2,000 moments of social interaction collected through smartphone-based experience sampling showed that, over a week-long period, people who have experienced negative relations with others (relative to those who have not), interacted with individuals from less-established relationships, perceived less partner responsiveness during i...

Social displacement is the proposition that time spent on social media replaces time spent in face-to-face interaction, particularly with close friends and family, thus reducing well-being. There is clear evidence of growing mobile and social media use, and some evidence of a decline in face-to-face communication. This essay concludes, however, the...

The multifaceted roles of public relations are not well-understood in strategic management. Thus, this study reviews strategic management literature and presents empirical evidence on the relevance of public relations to strategic management. Using data collected from public relations practitioners and organizational leaders in the Generally Accept...

Experts warned of increased stress for people confined at home during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, increased time spent communicating with loved ones may have had benefits, depending on the type of interactions and social energy they required. Using communicate bond belong (CBB) theory, we examined relationships between socia...

Drawing from a quota sample of adult Americans (N = 540), this survey explored how individuals who worked from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic used information communication technologies (ICTs), and the relationship use had with perceived stress. Results suggested that increased use of work-related video chat and text messaging were related...

This multi-method investigation focuses on perceived network support and its association with well-being for people in long-distance romantic relationships (LDRRs). In Study 1, interviews with 35 individuals in LDRRs were conducted. Analysis identified a general lack of support and understanding of LDRRs from peers and explored how partners manage...

Drawing from communicate bond belong theory, two dimensions of routine social interactions (i.e., volition, typicality) are examined in the context of everyday talk to advance theory on relationship maintenance. Adults' (N = 127) social interactions (n = 2537) were collected using experience sampling. Testing preregistered hypotheses, multilevel mo...

This manuscript examines the patterns of information communication technology (ICT) use with friends and family outside of the home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associations among ICT use and psychological (i.e., loneliness; stress) and social (i.e., social needs; relationship maintenance) wellbeing. In early May 2020, a representative pan...

Digital stress is believed to play a role in the association between social media use and psychosocial outcomes. However, the literature is limited by a lack of measures that conform to published theoretical models of the construct. The present investigation details the development of a new multidimensional measure of digital stress. Based on an ea...

Although presumed to be a means of maintaining relationships, there is limited empirical evidence whether relationships are actually maintained over time by Facebook-enabled communication. Drawing on communicate bond belong theory, we focus on the most common Facebook friends: weak ties. Adult (N = 174) participants completed three waves of data co...

This manuscript seeks to discover when a more conscious self-presentation in everyday social interactions results in positive feelings and connection to others. Communicate bond belong (CBB) theory frames hypotheses regarding how self-presentation consciousness and relationship status effect social energy expenditure, and how these concepts relate...

Cambridge Core - Social Psychology - Relating Through Technology - by Jeffrey A. Hall

Drawing from Turning Point Theory, this study explores whether context shifts, which are changes in the location where a friendship is enacted, affect relationship trajectories and friendship closeness. Study 1A (N = 120) experimentally manipulated invitations for context shifts in college friendships to test their effects on perceived relationship...

Chapters 1-3 of Relating Through Technology

Existing literature provides a complicated picture of the relationship between digital media use and psychological outcomes. Both correlational and some experimental studies suggest that social media use specifically can be associated with diminished psychological functioning in adolescents and young adults. However, these effect sizes are not larg...

To account for sex differences in the production, receptivity, and preference for humor in potential mates during courtship, past research has often adopted an evolutionary approach. The present manuscript will attempt to integrate evolutionary explanations with proximal social and cultural influences using the traditional sexual script and ambival...

Theoretical explanations for associations between characteristics of social interactions and global well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, loneliness) require further development and empirical grounding. We used the Communicate Bond Belong theory to develop six hypotheses linking the frequency, type, relatedness-to-energy ratio, and volition/choice o...

Social media use has a weak, negative association with well-being in cross-sectional and longitudinal research, but this association in experimental studies is mixed. This investigation explores whether social media abstinence leads to improved daily well-being over four weeks of time. Community and undergraduate participants (N = 130) were randoml...

This study examined how rumination and worry experienced within varying contexts of everyday life are associated with current‐moment and cross‐moment indicators of subjective well‐being. We also investigated if, in the context of social interaction, distracted communication uniquely predicts subjective well‐being and mediates the link between perse...

Latinos represent a large ethnic minority group in the United States, but their political participation, including on social media, is low compared to other groups. Guided by social identity and social cognitive theories, this study examines the influence of two dimensions of ingroup identification (i.e., group self-definition, group self-investmen...

This manuscript explores whether the associations between partner humor production and relationship satisfaction and humor’s importance in romantic relationships are moderated by sex. Study 1 reports a meta-analysis ( k = 10; N = 2,167) of the association between partner humor production (i.e., perceived; partner effects) and relationship satisfact...

The question of this investigation is, how many hours does it take to make a new friend? Drawing from Dunbar’s social brain hypothesis and Communicate Bond Belong theory, friendship status was examined as a function of hours together, shared activities, and everyday talk. In Study 1, MTurk participants (N = 355) who had recently relocated estimated...

Drawing from media displacement theory, this article explores which activities are displaced when individuals spend time on social media. Community and undergraduate participants (N = 135) were randomly assigned to five conditions: no change in social media use, or abstinence from social media for 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, or 4 weeks. Participants...

Social network analysis identifies social ties, and perceptual measures identify peer norms. The social relations model (SRM) can decompose interval-level perceptual measures among all dyads in a network into multiple person- and dyad-level components. This study demonstrates how to accommodate missing round-robin data using Bayesian data augmentat...

The present manuscript presents two tests of the hypothesis that social media use decreases social interaction, leading to decreased well-being. Study 1 used the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (N = 2774), which is a national probability sample of Generation X, to test displacement over a three-year time period. Latent change scores were used...

This investigation explores the question, when is social media use social interaction? The results of three studies indicated that social media use was rarely considered social interaction. After using social media for 5 or 10 minutes, Study 1 (N = 116) demonstrated that infrequent, directed social media behavior (e.g. chatting, commenting) predict...

To test the communicate bond belong (CBB) theory, this investigation explores the association between communication episode and closeness, affective well-being, and social energy expenditure. Participants from community (n = 62) and student (n = 54) samples were contacted five times a day for five consecutive days and reported on social interaction...

This multistudy investigation examines how entrapment, which is the guilt, anxiety, or stress to respond and be available to others via mobile devices, shapes and is shaped by patterns of mobile use. Using structural equation modeling on cross-sectional survey responses, Study 1 (N = 300) tested relationships among offline social network size, voic...

The present investigation replicates O’Connor and Rosenblood’s (1996) experience sampling study of the homeostatic regulation of social interaction and addresses the statistical limitations of the original study. Using community (N = 62) and student (N = 54) samples, multilevel model results indicated that desire to be alone reduces future likeliho...

This study examines the perceptions of an interaction partner’s physical attractiveness and traits in relation to whether and how partners were evaluated prior to interacting. Sixty-five pairs of heterosexual strangers were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (i.e., prerate photos of opposite-sex strangers including conversation partner, p...

This manuscript reports a meta-analysis of the correlation between humor and relationship satisfaction in romantic relationships, combining 43 distinct samples from 39 manuscripts and including 15,177 participants (54.7% female) with a mean age of 34.0 years. Drawing from 3 theoretical dimensions of humor (i.e., within-person/relational, positive/n...

The Communicate Bond Belong (CBB) theory is an evolutionary and motivational explanation of human communication's role in the relational functions of social interaction. CBB theory conceives of all social interactions as energy expending, but posits that only some social interactions are striving behaviors (i.e., actions taken to satiate a need). C...

Throughout the world, children seek out friendships and friendships develop naturally over time. Despite cultural differences, friendships are founded on several core features that transcend cultural boundaries, including reciprocity, mutual liking, and similarity. Theories of childhood friendship began with the work of Harry Stack Sullivan in the...

Friendship is a nonobligatory relationship of choice. Four characteristics of same-sex friends do not appear to differ by sex and show similarity across culture and age groups: propinquity, homophily, inclusion, and symmetrical reciprocity. Three characteristics that distinguish male same-sex friendship from female same-sex friendships are: greater...

This article reports two studies on the accuracy of flirting detection. In Study 1, 52 pairs (n = 104) of opposite-sex heterosexual strangers interacted for 10 to 12 minutes, then self-reported flirting and perceived partner flirting. The results indicated that interactions where flirting did not occur were more accurately perceived than interactio...

Drawing from relational framing theory (RFT), this manuscript proposes that during social–sexual communication, 3 primary social–sexual frames guide the interpretation of communication and 4 primary relational outcomes are drawn from that interpretation. The factor structure of this model was explored in an undergraduate sample (Study 1, N = 219) a...

This investigation examines a sexual selection-based argument regarding humor's role in courtship (i.e., humor production signals intelligence/creativity). Lens model (n ¼100) analyses suggest that humor production on Facebook profiles were self-reported and perceived to be associated with extroversion, not intelligence. Study 2 (n ¼ 289) found tha...

Factor analysis (FA) is becoming a common practice in communication research for measurement validation, yet issues associated with FA for ordinal items have not been adequately addressed. As many attitudinal and behavioral measures in communication research consist of ordered-categorical items, this article provides an accessible introduction for...

The present investigation identifies the nonverbal and verbal behaviors associated with the five flirting styles (i.e., physical, traditional, sincere, polite, playful) (Hall et al. in Commun Q 58:365–393, 2010). Fifty-one pairs (N = 102) of opposite-sex heterosexual strangers interacted for 10–12 min and then reported their physical attraction to...

The present study applies the ideal standards model (ISM) to explore the role of ideal friendship standards on friendship satisfaction in a specific same-sex friendship and responses to unmet expectations in friendships in general. Participants (N = 284) completed an online survey wherein they reported their expectations on six dimensions of friend...

The present investigation explores the association between nonverbal sensitivity (i.e., the Social Skills Inventory) and accuracy of flirting detection in videos of third-party zero-acquaintance interactions. The results showed no sex differences in detection accuracy and no association between nonverbal sensitivity and overall flirting detection a...

To extend research on online impression formation and warranting theory, the present investigation reports a Brunswick lens model analysis of Facebook profiles. Facebook users’ (n = 100) personality (i.e. extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness) was self-reported. Facebook users’ profiles were then content analyzed for...

This study uses co-orientation theory to examine the impact of mobile phone use on relational quality across three copresent contexts. It investigates the relationship between perceived similarity, actual similarity, and understanding of mobile phone usage on relationship outcomes, and uses a new measure of mobile relational interference to assess...

Abstract Although social networking sites (SNS) have become increasingly prevalent and integrated into the lives of users, the role of SNS in courtship is relatively unknown. The present manuscript reports on the characteristics of Americans married between 2005 and 2012 who met through SNS drawn from a weighted national sample (N=18,527). Compared...

This article presents the results of a mixed method analysis of the use and perception of humor orientation (HO) on Facebook (FB) profiles (N = 100). Results of the lens model analysis suggest that a variety of profile cues, not just those directly related to humor, are used by FB users to demonstrate HO and by observers to perceive HO. Cues used b...

This article reports two experiments exploring heterosexual men’s use of homophobic slang in social contexts varied by sex ratio. Study 1 (N = 127) experimentally demonstrated that compared with a mixed-sex audience, heterosexual men with an all-male audience reported higher levels of hetero-identity concern (HIC) and more homophobic slang use. The...

This article explores the associations between general humor styles, relationship-specific humor functions, and relationship satisfaction for 103 couples (N = 206) in long-term romantic relationships. Four Actor-Partner Interdependence Models tested whether five communicative functions of humor (i.e., enjoyment, affection, let go of conflict, copin...

This multi-study investigation identified and confirmed the factor structure of ideal friendship standards. Study 1 (N = 307) conducted an exploratory factor analysis on 30 existing subscales of friendship expectations. Study 2 (N = 401) reduced 181 items from past subscales and single-item measures of friendship expectations to 51 items measuring...

This article uses dialectical theory to examine how mobile phone use in close friendships affects relational expectations, the experiences of dependence, overdependence, and entrapment, and how those experiences affect relational satisfaction. Results suggest that increased mobile phone use for the purpose of relational maintenance has contradictor...

This cross-cultural study compared young male Arabs’ and young male Americans’ perceptions of their ethnic identity, self-construal, and conflict management styles. Findings indicated that Arabs had stronger ethnic identity than Americans. Arabs were both more independent and interdependent than American participants. Conflict style comparisons dem...

This multi-study investigation employed social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 197940. Tajfel , H. , & Turner , J. C. ( 1979 ). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict . In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33 – 47 ). Monterey , CA : Brooks/Cole . View all references) to explain the use of d...

The popularity of speed-seduction techniques, such as those described in The Game (Strauss 2005) and advocated in the cable program The Pickup Artist (Malloy 2007), suggests some women respond positively to men’s assertive mating strategies. Drawing from these sources, assertive strategies were operationalized as involving attempts to isolate women...

The ideal standards model predicts linear relationship among friendship standards, expectation fulfillment, and relationship satisfaction. Using a diary method, 197 participants reported on expectation fulfillment in interactions with one best, one close, and one casual friend (N = 591) over five days (2,388 interactions). Using multilevel modeling...

Friendship expectations are prescriptive normative behaviors and highly valued qualities in ideal same-sex friends. This paper reports the results of five meta-analyses of sex differences from 37 manuscripts (36 samples, N = 8825). A small difference favoring females was detected in overall friendship expectations (d = .17). Friendship expectations...

This manuscript explores one romantic partner’s humor use and the resulting embarrassment felt by the other partner using coorientation theory. Self-report and partner perception data were gathered from 106 couples (N = 212) in romantic relationships, and two coorientation variables were calculated. Actor—Partner Independence Models estimated the r...

Relationship initiation research supports the existence of 5 styles of communicating romantic interest in others: traditional, physical, sincere, playful, and polite. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on a large adult sample (N = 5,020) supported the existence of the styles. Styles predictably corresponded with self-monitoring and a 5-fa...

This article explores the relationships between communication and social support of parents of children with cancer (N = 44), and the importance of gender-role conflict in fathers. Structural equation modeling and the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model were used to test the expected relationships between communication, social support, gender-role...

This article explores the impact of the use of negative humor on relational satisfaction and the importance of humor in long-term relationships from a coorientation perspective. Dyadic data from 123 couples were gathered using a survey measuring positive and negative humor use. These data were analyzed using structural equations modeling and the Ac...

This study examines factors (including gender, self-monitoring, the big five personality traits, and demographic characteristics) that influence online dating service users’ strategic misrepresentation (i.e., the conscious and intentional misrepresentation of personal characteristics). Using data from a survey of online dating service users (N = 5,...

This is the published version. Egocentric social network instruments typically require independently sampled respondents to identify up to five social network alters. When collecting egocentric data from dyads (e.g., mothers and fathers), shared and unique network alters can be identified. The present manuscript describes a new way of using egocent...

Peer influence and peer selection have both been linked to the smoking behavior of adolescents. The present investigation uses social network analysis methodology to explore the simultaneous effects of both processes on adolescent smoking and smoking susceptibility over two time periods. Results suggest the effects of friendship selection in 6th gr...

This manuscript examines the social adjustment attitude function that drives homophobia and homophobic communication in fraternities. The social adjustment function underlying fraternity members' negative attitudes about homosexual fraternity brothers relates to the desire to secure and maintain cohesive male-male relationships within a fraternity...

Gary Webb's “Dark Alliance” series chronicles a drug ring that stretched from inner-city Los Angeles to the Nicaraguan Contra army. Frequently identified as a conspiracy theory in mainstream press coverage, Webb's work evoked widespread African American support. The mainstream media largely dismissed Webb's conclusions and portrayed the Black commu...

Submitted in application of the KU Open Access policy. The author wishes to thank the publisher for the right to share this article.

The present manuscript explores affinity seeking, testing, and signaling in initial interactions of opposite-sex strangers using instant messaging. Sixty dyads (N = 120) interacted for 20 minutes and participants identified when they showed liking and when they perceived their partner showing liking in the interaction transcript. Participants also...

The impact on fraternity membership on young men's friendships is explored through in-depth interviews of 23 former fraternity members. Men's friendships are explored in relation to the dyadic and structural components of fraternity membership. Former members negotiate their fraternity identity after graduation both socially and individually. Men o...

Submitted in fulfillment of KU faculty's Open Access Policy. To extend argument quality research, this article explores the effects of agreement and issue im- portance on argument quality assessment for eight different topic areas to explore whether there is systematic bias in the evaluation of an argument’s quality. Prior agreement was the primary...