Perceptions of Roommates
First impressions
Moving in with someone new is always an interesting experience and first
impressions can lay the foundation for a positive or negative future relationship. Marek,
Knapp, and Wanzer (2004) found that roommates who had better experiences with their
initial meeting were more likely to live together after their first year of college. Also,
positive initial interactions were linked to better friendships overtime (Marek, Wanzer, &
Knapp, 2004). Thus supporting the idea that first impressions do matter when it comes to
roommate relationships. This study used “Sunnafrank's (1986) Predicted Outcome Value
(POV) theory,” which is a revision of Berger’s Uncertainty Reduction Theory, used this
as a framework to help understand the progression of relationships (Marek, Wanzer, &
Knapp, 2004). The Predicted Outcome Value theory states the idea that people are more
likely to create more meaningful relationships based off of initial positive or negative
impressions and they believed that people who had a better first impression were more
likely to have a better relationship with their roommate over time (Marek, Wanzer, &
Knapp, 2004). No matter how the first meeting goes between roommates, “individuals
feel more connected to others during joint (vs. solo) experiences” (Bhargave &
Montgomery, 2013). So even if first year roommates would normally not become
friends, they are more likely to get along because of the connection that they share from
experiencing college for the first time together.
With the introduction of social media sites, many roommates first impressions of
one another come before they meet in person. Social media websites allow people to
emphasize aspects of them that they find desirable and downplay, or even deny, aspects
they find undesirable. “Computer-mediated channels dramatically increased the incidence
of desired self presentation,” thus potentially skewing someone’s initial first impression
(Dhaene, Dix, Powers, Shegog, & Stern, 2007). First impressions account for a lot of
what comes next in a relationship, sometimes a bad first impression has lasting
consequences making first impressions between college roommates very important.
Nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication between roommates can also impact how they think of
one another. Argo and McFerran stated in their article that perceptions of ones social
status could impact how a roommate may think of their other roommate (Argo &
McFerran, 2014). If one roommate were to come into college knowing a lot of people,
their group of friends will make them feel like they already have a social connection and
may make that person seem more outgoing or confident (Argo & McFerran, 2014). Also,
nonverbal communication such as smiles, speech, and body posture give off an
impression to others about status. Cashdan (1998) found that “Women high in power had
more open body postures than other women” and those who smiled to strangers were
seen as more popular and caring. Cashdan did not find any strong conclusions between
men and their nonverbal communication to strangers (Cashdan, 1998). From Cashdan’s
study we can see that if one roommate uses certain body postures, it may impact their
relationship with their roommate. Erlandson (2012), looked at nonverbal communication
between roommates through direct observation. She found that two variables affected
satisfaction among roommates: territoriality and immediacy (Erlandson, 2012).
Roommates who feel the need to have defined personal spaces are more likely to get
along with those who have the same feelings towards personal space. “Roommates who
both had high firmness of boundaries scores were less satisfied with each other”
(Erlandson, 2012). Another nonverbal that can affect the relationship between roommates
is their cleanliness. About a third of roommates had experienced conflict, guilt, and/or
resentment toward another roommate related to housework several times a month. 95%
of the participants thought that matching potential roommates on cleanliness prefernces
was at least somewhat important (Ogletree, 2005). Showing that compatibility between
roommates could be based off of the cleanliness level of each roommate.