Abstract: Millions of U.S. adults join online support groups to attain health goals, but the support the groups provide depends on the social ties that members form, and ties are often too weak. These online groups with their wide geographic reach are frequently demographically diverse which tends to undermine social ties, but why? Using a field study of online quit-smoking groups, we ask if online support group members hide their dissimilar demographics because they are concerned this may weaken their ties. Consistent with the homophily principle, we find evidence of this. However, we also find that acts of self-disclosure of demographic differences actually strengthen ties, which then facilitates support group members’ health goal attainment. In other words, social ties in online groups are weak not because members are demographically dissimilar, but because they are reluctant to self-disclose their dissimilarities; but if they do self-disclose, this itself breeds interpersonal connection, trumping any dissimilarities. Data on two types of dissimilarity, dyad-level difference and group-level minority status, and supplemental data from three experiments, provide convergent support for our findings.

Bio: Connie (Cornelia) Pechmann is Professor of Marketing at The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California Irvine. She conducts lab and field experiments to study controversial marketing messages including tobacco and drug messages and social media messages. She has received numerous grants to study adolescents’ response to tobacco-related advertising and product placements. Her recent work examines the use of social media for online self-help groups and she has received a $2.5M NIH grant to develop Tweet2Quit for smoking cessation. Prof. Pechmann has published numerous articles in leading marketing journals (JCR, JCP, JMR, JM and JPPM) and public health journals (AJPH, TC) and her work has received extensive press coverage. She is past Editor of the Journal of Consumer Psychology (2012-2015), an Area Editor at Journal of Marketing, a Top 50 Marketing Scholar, and a Who’s Who in Economics. She received the 2009 Pollay Prize for Research in the Public Interest and the 2005 JCR best article award. Her research has been presented to the U.S. Congress, the California State Legislature and the National Association of Attorneys’ General. Prof. Pechmann has an M.S., MBA, and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.