A Study of the Impression Evaluation and Management through Online Nicknames in Computer-Mediated Interpersonal Communication

This paper studies names including the nickname and the real name, the personal identity symbols of the network society and real society, as clues for the impression evaluation in social cognition. It adopts the questionnaire method with quantitative analysis. From the perspective of the evaluator, examine the differences in impression evaluation based on the stereotype content model (SCM) under two social situations. From the perspective of the evaluatee, explore whether there is an impression management based on the stereotypes of the real name or self-social cognition in the online society. It is found that the external characteristics and internal mechanisms of the two evaluation situations are different: the impression evaluation via real names is more moderate, focusing on the competence dimension, and the evaluation via online nicknames is more bold and clear, focusing on the warmth dimension. In the online interpersonal communication, the impression management through nicknames is based on the self-cognition of the real society in the warmth dimension.