Catalina L Toma
Biographic Data
| ID | 158519 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Catalina L Toma |
| GIVEN NAMES | Catalina L |
| FAMILY NAME | Toma |
| SIGNATURE | TOMA C L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0714-312X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 57 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Streaming in the Time of the Plague
Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, streaming television subscriptions and media consumption surged at an unprecedented scale in the U.S. While audiences turned to streaming TV to cope with the lockdown, streaming platforms experimented with content delivery and packaging to adapt to emerging viewership trends. In this mixed-method study that combines surveys and focus groups with undergraduate students we found that students used streaming media both …
Chatbots and Loneliness
This study theorizes and tests language-based mechanisms through which conversations with chatbots can shape users’ loneliness. Lonely college students ( N = 96) engaged in emotionally meaningful conversations with the chatbot Replika daily for one week. Results showed a small but significant decrease in users’ loneliness from baseline to post-test. Linguistic analyses revealed two distinct well-being pathways. When participants used more positiv…
The combined well-being effects of social media activities
Social media activities do not occur in isolation, and it is possible that the well-being effects of an initial activity modify the effects of a subsequent one. This article examines this possibility by focusing on a specific, theoretically grounded sequence of social media activities: engaging with one’s own profile self-presentation (i.e., a self-affirmational activity) followed by browsing a superior peer’s profile (i.e., an activity eliciting…
Does Facebook Use Provide Social Benefits to Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury
Drawing on the social compensation hypothesis, this study investigates whether Facebook use facilitates social connectedness for individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), a common and debilitating medical condition that often results in social isolation. In a survey (N = 104 participants; n = 53 with TBI, n = 51 without TBI), individuals with TBI reported greater preference for self-disclosure on Facebook (vs. face-to-face) compared to nonin…
To Text or Talk in Person? Social Anxiety, Media Affordances, and Preferences for Texting Over Face-To-Face Communication in Dating Relationships
Collocated dating couples have the choice between interacting in person or via communication media, inviting theorizing about when and why they gravitate toward mediated communication. Drawing on O’Sullivan’s (2000) model, we investigated young adults’ preference for texting over face-to-face (FtF) communication in situations varying in threat (mundane talk vs. difficult conversations vs. breakups), as a function of individuals’ social anxiety an…
An Experiment on the Effects of Self-disclosure on Perceived Partner Responsiveness and Intimacy in Zero-Acquaintance Relationships
Self-disclosure and perceived partner responsiveness are the key ingredients in intimacy development. Using the interpersonal process model of intimacy as a theoretical framework, this article proposes that participants’ own self-disclosure affects their perceptions of partner responsiveness, even when the partner’s actual responsiveness is held constant, and that this perceived partner responsiveness increases relational intimacy. Findings from …
International students’ psychosocial well-being and social media use at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic
When do Online Audiences Amplify Benefits of Self-Disclosure? The Role of Shared Experience and Anticipated Interactivity
As individuals increasingly write about their distressing experiences online, it is important to understand how perceived online audiences influence the effects of self-disclosure. In an experiment, participants wrote about recent breakups for online audiences purportedly varying in 1) whether they shared recent breakup experiences and 2) their ability to leave comments. Participants perceiving audiences with shared experience showed more cogniti…
Developing online deception literacy while looking for love
Payal Arora and her colleagues argue that Facebook has become a widely-used tool for finding romance in the global south, especially among marginalized youth. Yet this reliance on Facebook opens users up to the possibility of deception, forcing many to develop a dynamic online deception literacy. In this response paper, I unpack the notion of online deception literacy by reviewing the existing social scientific literature on this topic. I discuss…
Tell-Tale Words
This article analyzes the linguistic cues used by naïve perceivers to assess the expertise of online medical advice. We develop a theoretical framework of linguistic correlates to perceived expertise and test it on a corpus of 120 online medical advice messages, written by either medical doctors or laypersons. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analyses show that messages were perceived as more expert if they contained more words (an indica…
Social sharing through interpersonal media
Self-Affirmation Underlies Facebook Use
Social network sites, such as Facebook, have acquired an unprecedented following, yet it is unknown what makes them so attractive to users. Here we propose that these sites' popularity can be understood through the fulfillment of ego needs. We use self-affirmation theory to hypothesize why and when people spend time on their online profiles. Study 1 shows that Facebook profiles are self-affirming in the sense of satisfying users' need for self-wo…
What Lies Beneath
This article investigates whether deceptions in online dating profiles correlate with changes in the way daters write about themselves in the free-text portion of the profile, and whether these changes are detectable by both computerized linguistic analyses and human judges. Computerized analyses (Study 1) found that deceptions manifested themselves through linguistic cues pertaining to (a) liars' emotions and cognitions and (b) liars' strategic …
Profile as promise
This research explores how users conceptualize misrepresentation (their own and others’) in a specific genre of online self-presentation: the online dating profile. Using qualitative data collected from 37 online dating participants, we explore user understandings of self-presentational practices, specifically how discrepancies between one’s online profile and offline presentation are constructed, assessed, and justified. Based on our analysis, w…
Looks and Lies
This study examines the role of online daters’ physical attractiveness in their profile self-presentation and, in particular, their use of deception. Sixty-nine online daters identified the deceptions in their online dating profiles and had their photograph taken in the lab. Independent judges rated the online daters’ physical attractiveness. Results show that the lower online daters’ attractiveness, the more likely they were to enhance their pro…
Putting Your Best Face Forward
This study examines the accuracy of 54 online dating photographs posted by heterosexual daters. We report data on (a1) online daters' self-reported accuracy, (b) independent judges' perceptions of accuracy, and (c) inconsistencies in the profile photograph identified by trained coders. While online daters rated their photos as relatively accurate, independent judges rated approximately 1/3 of the photographs as not accurate. Female photographs we…
Separating Fact From Fiction
This study examines self-presentation in online dating profiles using a novel cross-validation technique for establishing accuracy. Eighty online daters rated the accuracy of their online self-presentation. Information about participants' physical attributes was then collected (height, weight, and age) and compared with their online profile, revealing that deviations tended to be ubiquitous but small in magnitude. Men lied more about their height…
Profile as promise
This research explores how users conceptualize misrepresentation (their own and others’) in a specific genre of online self-presentation: the online dating profile. Using qualitative data collected from 37 online dating participants, we explore user understandings of self-presentational practices, specifically how discrepancies between one’s online profile and offline presentation are constructed, assessed, and justified. Based on our analysis, w…
Tell-Tale Words
This article analyzes the linguistic cues used by naïve perceivers to assess the expertise of online medical advice. We develop a theoretical framework of linguistic correlates to perceived expertise and test it on a corpus of 120 online medical advice messages, written by either medical doctors or laypersons. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analyses show that messages were perceived as more expert if they contained more words (an indica…
Developing online deception literacy while looking for love
Payal Arora and her colleagues argue that Facebook has become a widely-used tool for finding romance in the global south, especially among marginalized youth. Yet this reliance on Facebook opens users up to the possibility of deception, forcing many to develop a dynamic online deception literacy. In this response paper, I unpack the notion of online deception literacy by reviewing the existing social scientific literature on this topic. I discuss…
The combined well-being effects of social media activities
Social media activities do not occur in isolation, and it is possible that the well-being effects of an initial activity modify the effects of a subsequent one. This article examines this possibility by focusing on a specific, theoretically grounded sequence of social media activities: engaging with one’s own profile self-presentation (i.e., a self-affirmational activity) followed by browsing a superior peer’s profile (i.e., an activity eliciting…
Separating Fact From Fiction
This study examines self-presentation in online dating profiles using a novel cross-validation technique for establishing accuracy. Eighty online daters rated the accuracy of their online self-presentation. Information about participants' physical attributes was then collected (height, weight, and age) and compared with their online profile, revealing that deviations tended to be ubiquitous but small in magnitude. Men lied more about their height…
Putting Your Best Face Forward
This study examines the accuracy of 54 online dating photographs posted by heterosexual daters. We report data on (a1) online daters' self-reported accuracy, (b) independent judges' perceptions of accuracy, and (c) inconsistencies in the profile photograph identified by trained coders. While online daters rated their photos as relatively accurate, independent judges rated approximately 1/3 of the photographs as not accurate. Female photographs we…
Looks and Lies
This study examines the role of online daters’ physical attractiveness in their profile self-presentation and, in particular, their use of deception. Sixty-nine online daters identified the deceptions in their online dating profiles and had their photograph taken in the lab. Independent judges rated the online daters’ physical attractiveness. Results show that the lower online daters’ attractiveness, the more likely they were to enhance their pro…
Profile as promise
This research explores how users conceptualize misrepresentation (their own and others’) in a specific genre of online self-presentation: the online dating profile. Using qualitative data collected from 37 online dating participants, we explore user understandings of self-presentational practices, specifically how discrepancies between one’s online profile and offline presentation are constructed, assessed, and justified. Based on our analysis, w…
What Lies Beneath
This article investigates whether deceptions in online dating profiles correlate with changes in the way daters write about themselves in the free-text portion of the profile, and whether these changes are detectable by both computerized linguistic analyses and human judges. Computerized analyses (Study 1) found that deceptions manifested themselves through linguistic cues pertaining to (a) liars' emotions and cognitions and (b) liars' strategic …
Self-Affirmation Underlies Facebook Use
Social network sites, such as Facebook, have acquired an unprecedented following, yet it is unknown what makes them so attractive to users. Here we propose that these sites' popularity can be understood through the fulfillment of ego needs. We use self-affirmation theory to hypothesize why and when people spend time on their online profiles. Study 1 shows that Facebook profiles are self-affirming in the sense of satisfying users' need for self-wo…
Social sharing through interpersonal media
Tell-Tale Words
This article analyzes the linguistic cues used by naïve perceivers to assess the expertise of online medical advice. We develop a theoretical framework of linguistic correlates to perceived expertise and test it on a corpus of 120 online medical advice messages, written by either medical doctors or laypersons. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analyses show that messages were perceived as more expert if they contained more words (an indica…
Developing online deception literacy while looking for love
Payal Arora and her colleagues argue that Facebook has become a widely-used tool for finding romance in the global south, especially among marginalized youth. Yet this reliance on Facebook opens users up to the possibility of deception, forcing many to develop a dynamic online deception literacy. In this response paper, I unpack the notion of online deception literacy by reviewing the existing social scientific literature on this topic. I discuss…
When do Online Audiences Amplify Benefits of Self-Disclosure? The Role of Shared Experience and Anticipated Interactivity
As individuals increasingly write about their distressing experiences online, it is important to understand how perceived online audiences influence the effects of self-disclosure. In an experiment, participants wrote about recent breakups for online audiences purportedly varying in 1) whether they shared recent breakup experiences and 2) their ability to leave comments. Participants perceiving audiences with shared experience showed more cogniti…
An Experiment on the Effects of Self-disclosure on Perceived Partner Responsiveness and Intimacy in Zero-Acquaintance Relationships
Self-disclosure and perceived partner responsiveness are the key ingredients in intimacy development. Using the interpersonal process model of intimacy as a theoretical framework, this article proposes that participants’ own self-disclosure affects their perceptions of partner responsiveness, even when the partner’s actual responsiveness is held constant, and that this perceived partner responsiveness increases relational intimacy. Findings from …
International students’ psychosocial well-being and social media use at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic
Does Facebook Use Provide Social Benefits to Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury
Drawing on the social compensation hypothesis, this study investigates whether Facebook use facilitates social connectedness for individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), a common and debilitating medical condition that often results in social isolation. In a survey (N = 104 participants; n = 53 with TBI, n = 51 without TBI), individuals with TBI reported greater preference for self-disclosure on Facebook (vs. face-to-face) compared to nonin…
To Text or Talk in Person? Social Anxiety, Media Affordances, and Preferences for Texting Over Face-To-Face Communication in Dating Relationships
Collocated dating couples have the choice between interacting in person or via communication media, inviting theorizing about when and why they gravitate toward mediated communication. Drawing on O’Sullivan’s (2000) model, we investigated young adults’ preference for texting over face-to-face (FtF) communication in situations varying in threat (mundane talk vs. difficult conversations vs. breakups), as a function of individuals’ social anxiety an…
The combined well-being effects of social media activities
Social media activities do not occur in isolation, and it is possible that the well-being effects of an initial activity modify the effects of a subsequent one. This article examines this possibility by focusing on a specific, theoretically grounded sequence of social media activities: engaging with one’s own profile self-presentation (i.e., a self-affirmational activity) followed by browsing a superior peer’s profile (i.e., an activity eliciting…
Streaming in the Time of the Plague
Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, streaming television subscriptions and media consumption surged at an unprecedented scale in the U.S. While audiences turned to streaming TV to cope with the lockdown, streaming platforms experimented with content delivery and packaging to adapt to emerging viewership trends. In this mixed-method study that combines surveys and focus groups with undergraduate students we found that students used streaming media both …
Chatbots and Loneliness
This study theorizes and tests language-based mechanisms through which conversations with chatbots can shape users’ loneliness. Lonely college students ( N = 96) engaged in emotionally meaningful conversations with the chatbot Replika daily for one week. Results showed a small but significant decrease in users’ loneliness from baseline to post-test. Linguistic analyses revealed two distinct well-being pathways. When participants used more positiv…
Psychology (14 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (6 works) · Social media (6 works) · Deception (5 works) · Impact of Technology on Adolescents (5 works) · Cognitive psychology (4 works) · Medicine (4 works) · Perception (4 works)