Self-Disclosure, Reciprocity and Liking

While assuming that the reception of self-disclosing information is rewarding, it was suggested that various costs become salient when the information is highly intimate, making the overall outcome negative. 30 female Ss were exposed to a low, medium, and high disclosing other in a role-playing experiment. Ss reciprocated the intimacy level of the low and medium disclosing others. Although an obtained increase in subject intimacy with the medium to high increase in other intimacy was unexpected, reciprocity became less powerful as a determinant of responses at high intimacy levels. As predicted, there was a curvilinear relationship between self-disclosure and liking. Ss perceived the high disclosing other as significantly less well-adjusted than either the low or medium disclosers.