What is in a name? An effect of similarity in computer-mediated communication

Abstract

Similarity between a solicitor and a participant leads to enhanced helping behavior. An experiment manipulating similarity was carried out in a computer-mediated context where 634 males and females taken at random in various e-mails lists were solicited to visit a web site for the profit of a humanitarian organization. In half of the cases, the given-name of the solicitor, which appeared in his/her electronic address, was the same as that of the receiver. Results show that compliance to the request was significantly higher in the case of first name congruence.