article

If you spoke as she does, sir, instead of the way you do: a sociolinguistics perspective of gender differences in virtual communities

Authors:

Catherine M. RidingsAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems, Volume 36, Issue 2

Pages 78 - 92

https://doi.org/10.1145/1066149.1066156

Published: 07 June 2005 Publication History

Abstract

This study examines virtual community quality through sociolinguistics theory. According to sociolinguistics, in oral discourse men communicate to establish superior social standing, while women communicate with the undertone of rapport, compassion, and empathy. The study shows that these differences carry over to the asynchronous written environment of virtual communities and affect men's and women's respective perceptions of community quality. Women go to virtual communities to give and to get social support and have a more favorable assessment of the capability of others. This pattern generally holds even when comparing mostly single-gender communities and mixed-gender communities. However, a closer look at these differences reveals a more complex picture, with undertones in mixed-gender communities being less than in their respective mostly single-gender communities.

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Index Terms

If you spoke as she does, sir, instead of the way you do: a sociolinguistics perspective of gender differences in virtual communities
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
  2. Human computer interaction (HCI)
2. Information systems
  1. World Wide Web
    1. Web applications
      1. Internet communications tools

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cover image ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems

ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems Volume 36, Issue 2

Spring 2005

87 pages

ISSN:0095-0033

EISSN:1532-0936

DOI:10.1145/1066149

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Copyright © 2005 Authors.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 07 June 2005

Published in SIGMIS Volume 36, Issue 2

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2025.104086
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