View article

The first face-to-face (FtF) meeting of online daters serves as a turning point for relationship development. Based on expectancy violations theory and the hyperpersonal model, this study investigated the associations between expectancy violations on partners' physical and communicative characteristics and relational outcomes during modality switching in online dating. Working with 380 online daters who have met their online partners face-to-face in the previous three months, this study found that negative expectancy violations on physical appearance and word choices in the first FtF meeting were associated with undesirable relational outcomes. Furthermore, perceived honesty of the partner partially mediated the associations between negative expectancy violations on the partner's physical appearance and word choices and relational outcomes. Together, the current study advances our understanding of …