Effects of Nonverbal Immediacy and Similarity on Perceptions of Likability and Friendship Potential: First Impressions of U.S. and Middle Eastern Students on Zoom

Using a pre-test post-test design, this study extends research on the principle of immediacy by investigating how enacted levels of nonverbal immediacy (high, low) work alongside similarity (high, low) to impact perceptions of students from the U.S. and the Middle East within same-gender dyads. Participants reported impressions twice—first after seeing a document showing only the confederate’s name, photo, and country of origin, and then after interacting with the confederate on Zoom. Confederates were trained to enact either high or low levels of nonverbal immediacy and similarity, but within a normative range that would not be considered too atypical. After interacting, participants exposed to high nonverbal immediacy reported increased perceptions of likability and friendship potential. In addition, those exposed to low nonverbal immediacy or low similarity reported decreased perceptions of likability and friendship potential. Culture and gender of the dyad moderated some of the effects for nonverbal immediacy. These findings generalize the principle of immediacy to first meetings with Middle Eastern students on Zoom, and demonstrate that low nonverbal immediacy and similarity have particularly strong negative effects on perceptions of likability and friendship potential.