Chronemic Nonverbal Expectancy Violations in Written Computer-Mediated Communication

Time related (chronemic) cues are an important component of nonverbal communication. Do they also act as nonverbal cues in computer mediated communication? 55 participants were asked to rate a job candidate described in a vignette. Candidates varied in their valence (high valence, low valence) and in their response latency to an e-mail (normative one day latency, and nonnormative latencies of two weeks, and of total silence for a month). Candidates were identical in all other respects. The results show that the normative online response latency was more expected and resulted in more positive evaluations of the candidate. Complex interactions between response latency and candidate valence were observed. The importance of response latency as a nonverbal cue in computer mediated communication is discussed.