Digital connection, real bonding: brief onlineChats boost interpersonal closeness regardless of the conversational topic

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has gained incredible popularity in the last decade. To test whether a brief written exchange would impact interpersonal dynamics between individuals, here we asked participants to engage in virtual written conversation—starting from an abstract or a concrete topic—with another individual (interactive condition) or to write a few sentences in parallel with them (non-interactive condition). Results show that in the interactive condition, participants felt overall closer to the interlocutor, compared to the non-interactive condition. Furthermore, the more participants perceived the conversation as pleasant and intimate, and the more significant they rated the other person's contribution to the conversation, the closer they felt to the interlocutor. Inconclusive evidence was obtained regarding the modulation of interpersonal dynamics as a function of the conversational topic. These findings highlight the crucial role of the quality of dialogical exchanges during brief virtual written conversations (< 5 minutes) in fostering feelings of closeness.