The influence of user comments on perceptions of Facebook relationship status updates

• We examine the influence of user comments on Facebook in the context of relationship status updates.
• An online experiment was conducted with 453 participants.
• Comments from other users alter perceptions of a Facebook relationship status update.
• Attitudes are more driven by the valence of the comments than the nature of the status.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how social media users’ comments influence people’s perception of information on Facebook. This was explored in the context of relationship status updates, where a person makes an announcement via Facebook about the formation or dissolution of a real-world romantic relationship. An online experiment was conducted to investigate how positive or negative changes in a relationship status, in conjunction with either positive or negative comments toward the relationship status update, can influence attitudes toward the announcement made. Data was collected from 453 participants using a between-subjects 2 × 2 factorial design. The findings suggest that comments from other users alter perceptions of a Facebook relationship status update. Not only do we show that positive comments lead to favorable attitudes toward the status and negative comments lead to poorer attitudes toward the status, the research also shows that observers’ attitudes toward an updated relationship status are more driven by the valence of the comments than the nature of the status. That is, positive Facebook statuses can be seen as negative if the comments associated with the status are negative in nature. Implications toward theories of community formation and management online are presented as well as contributions toward those using social media as a means of promoting themselves to others.