Preference of Online Friends Over Face-To-Face Friends: Effect of Interpersonal Fears on Online Relationship Building Preference

The emergence of online social networking has increased development of exclusively online friendships. Individuals in online environments are willing to invest considerable time and effort to develop and maintain relationships as they would in other gathering spaces. In some cases, individuals find it preferable to make friends via the internet over more traditional means of relationship formation. The current study examines preference for online friends over face-to-face friends. Initially, we developed a brief, one-dimensional, 11-item questionnaire assessing online friendship preference based on semi-structured interviews. Confirmatory factor analysis showed support for a one-factor model. Internal consistency was established using inter-item correlation, corrected item-total correlation, and Cronbach’s α. Subsequently, we examined the psychological determinants and consequences of preference for online friendship formation. Participants who reported higher fear of intimacy and perceived relationship vulnerability reported greater preference for online friends over face-to-face friends. Preference for online friendship was related to increased risk of problematic internet use. The findings suggest that interpersonal fears, combined with attributes of online communication (e.g., reduced social cues and more personal control) motivate some individuals to prefer online intimacies over face-to-face friendships, thereby increasing time spent online.

of fear of intimacy, fear of negative evaluation, hurt feeling proneness, and perceived relationship vulnerability in online friendship preference.

Method Participants
The convenience sample consisted of college students of Guilan University in Iran. Initial development of the Online Friendship Preference Questionnaire (OFPQ) was explored using a semi-structured interview with 9 individuals who reported preference for online friends over face-to-face friends. Content validity of the OFPQ was then evaluated for relevance, clarity, and simplicity by 7 psychometric experts. Subsequently, 43 participants were administered the OFPQ for pilot-testing. Eventually, a total of 449 participants, 283 women (63.03%) and 166 men (36.97%), M age = 22.41, SD age = 4.13, Range age = 18-39, received the full online survey. Most participants (n = 394; 87.75%) were undergraduate students (18.53% 1st year students, 12.44% 2nd year students, 62.94% 3rd year students, and 6.09% 4th year students).

Procedure
We used a mixed-method design integrating qualitative and quantitative methods. The current study aimed to develop and validate the Online Friendship Preference Question naire (OFPQ). Furthermore, the psychological determinants and consequences of prefer ence for online friendship formation were investigated.
The items of OFPQ were generated using related literature, a semi-structured inter view, content validity suggestions provided by an expert panel, and a pilot study. The reliability and validity of ONPQ were explored using content validity index (CVI; Waltz & Bausell, 1981), content validity ratio (CVR; Lawshe, 1975), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), inter-item correlation, corrected item-total correlation, and Cronbach's α. The sample was split in half randomly for EFA (n = 225; 50.11%) and CFA (n = 224; 49.89%) for more precise results. Furthermore, Pearson corre lation coefficients and multiple regression analysis were used to explore psychological determinants and consequences of online friendship preference (n = 449).

Measures Online Friendship Preference
Preference of online friends over face-to-face friends was measured through Online Friendship Preference Questionnaire (OFPQ) developed for the current study (see Table  1). Table 1 Items of the Initial 12-Item Version of OFPQ Item 1. I prefer online friends to real world friends.
2. I would rather search for a friend on the Internet than in the real world.
3. I count more on my online friends than real friends.
4. If I have something important to say, I'm more likely to tell online friends than real-world friends.
5. My online friendships are warmer than my real-world friendships.
6. I enjoy spending time with my online friends more than friends in real life.
7. I feel more intimate with my online friends than I do with my friends in real life.
8. I feel closer to my online friends than my friends in real life. 9. My online friendships tend to be deeper than friendships in the real world.
10. I believe online friends can more truly be friends than real-life friends.
11. I feel more comfortable expressing myself to online friends compared to real-world friends.
12. I prefer to pursue friendships via the internet instead of face-to-face interaction.
Note. Item responses ranged from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The OFPQ was originally developed in Persian. The English version presented here is translated.

Fear of Intimacy
Fear of intimacy in relationships was assessed via the Fear of Intimacy Components Questionnaire (FICQ;Pedro Sobral & Emília Costa, 2015). The FICQ contains 10 items with two subscales including fear of losing the self (e.g., I don't like to justify myself to my partners) and fear of losing the other (e.g., I try to hide my weaknesses from my partner) that assess individuals' anxiety about close relationships. For the purpose of this study, the word "friends" replaced the word "partner" in each item. Items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree). A higher score on this scale indicates a higher fear of intimacy. The validity and reliability of the FICQ has been established (Pedro Sobral & Emília Costa, 2015).

Fear of Negative Evaluation
The participants' tolerance for the possibility they might be judged disparagingly or hostilely by others was measured by the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, Version 2 (BFNE-II; Carleton et al., 2006). The BFNE-II is a 12-item scale measuring anxiety asso ciated with perceived negative evaluation (e.g., I am afraid that others will not approve of me). Response options range from 0 (not at all characteristic of me) to 4 (entirely characteristic of me), in which higher scores indicate higher fear of negative evaluation. The scale has satisfactory validity and reliability (Carleton et al., 2006).

Hurt Feeling Proneness
Social pain and unhappiness caused by someone's words or actions was assessed through the Hurt Feeling Scale (HFS; Leary & Springer, 2001). HFS is a 6-item scale that measures the ease with which individuals experience hurt feelings. Responses are scored on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all and 5 = extremely characteristic of me). Higher scores indicate greater fear of hurt feelings. The scale has shown good psychometric properties (Leary & Springer, 2001).

Relationship Vulnerability
To measure perceived relationship vulnerability, the item "how much do you fear being rejected in interpersonal relationships?" was included. Response options were on a 7point Likert type scale from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much).

Problematic Internet Use
Problematic usage of the Internet was measured via the Problematic Internet Use Ques tionnaire-9 (PIUQ-9; Laconi et al., 2019). PIUQ-9 consists of 9 items (e.g., Does it happen to you that you wish to decrease the amount of time spent online but you do not succeed?) with a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Higher scores indicate higher risk of problematic internet use. A bifactor model of the scale with one general problem factor and two specific factors including obsession and neglect/control disorders showed acceptable fit (Laconi et al., 2019). The satisfactory psychometric prop erties of the PIUQ-9 were reported across a number of European samples (Laconi et al., 2019).

The Psychometric Properties of the Online Friendship Preference Questionnaire (OFPQ)
Initially, we examined the psychometric properties of the OFPQ. High CVI (.91) and CVR (.92) were found for the 12 items. Tests for normality confirmed that the data were normally distributed prior to running EFA and CFA. After examining the Cronbach's alpha (α = .94, 95% CI [.94, .95]) and initial EFA, one redundant item (OFPQ's item 12; "I prefer to pursue friendships via the internet instead of face-to-face interaction") was deleted to obtain the best model fit. Then, psychometric properties of 11-item OFPQ were investigated. The outcomes of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO = .95) and Bartlett's test of sphericity (χ 2 (15) = 1632.83, p < .001) confirmed the suitability of data for factor analysis (n = 225). Principal factor analysis was used to explore the structure. EFA (n = 225; 50.11%) yielded a one-factor solution as the best fit for the data, accounting for 57.00% of the variance (Table 2). Note. M and SD were also calculated from the split sample for EFA (n = 225).
The scree plot indicated that a large portion of variability was explained by one factor (Figure 1).

The Determinants and Consequences of Online Friendship Preference
After establishing psychometric properties of the OFPQ, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple regression analyses were conducted to address the determinants and conse quences of online friendship preference (n = 449). As expected (Table 5), fear of intimacy (r = .34; p < .01), perceived relationship vulnerability (r = .26; p < .01), and problematic internet use (r = .27; p < .01) were positively correlated with online friendship preference. Contrary to our expectations, there were no significant correlations between fear of negative evaluation (r = .09; p = .06) and hurt feeling proneness (r = .07; p = .16) with online friendship preference. The sum of study's variables explained .39 of the unique variance in online friendship preference (R 2 = .39, p < .01). Fear of losing the self (β = .24; p < .01), fear of losing the other (β = .11; p < .05), and perceived relationship vulnerability (β = .21; p < .01) significantly predicted online friendship preference (Table 6). Further, regression results confirmed the relation between online friendship preference and problematic internet use (R 2 = .27, p < .01; β = .27; p < .01). Note. Total score of fear of intimacy was excluded.

Discussion
The present study confirmed the psychometric properties of the Online Friendship Pref erence Questionnaire (OFPQ). To our knowledge, the OFPQ is the first scale measuring online friendship preference. We found that participants with high fear of intimacy and perceived relationship vulnerability were more inclined toward online friendship prefer ence. Moreover, results showed that online friendship preference predicted problematic internet use. Our findings support the Hyperpersonal Model of interpersonal communi cation (Walther et al., 2015) and suggest that online friendship may be a response to social anxiety. The Hyperpersonal Model of interpersonal communication suggests that computermediated communication can offer a range of advantages over traditional face-to-face communication (Walther et al., 2015). When communicating online, individuals can optimize self-presentation by selectively posting information or editing photos and text to enhance social desirability. The delays of asynchronous communication allow for ample planning, editing, and self-censorship to maximize one's impression management strategy and therefore avoid negative evaluation. Moreover, internet communication generally features reduced social cues (e.g., nonverbal behaviors; Parks & Floyd, 1996). In the absence of extensive social cues, communication partners tend to "fill in the gaps" by assuming positive characteristics, which may make the communicator seem even more socially desirable (Parks & Floyd, 1996). In an evaluation of the Hyperpersonal Model, Hian et al. (2004) experimentally varied communication in dyads with some pairs interacting face-to-face and others interacting electronically. They found that relational intimacy developed more rapidly among those using computer-mediated communication (Hian et al., 2004). These results suggest that, under some circumstances, computer-medi ated communication may facilitate the development of interpersonal relationships.
In our study, participants with high fear of intimacy including fear of losing the self (ß = .24; p < .01) and fear of losing the other (ß = .11; p < .05), and also perceived relation ship vulnerability (ß = .21; p < .01), tended to prefer online over face-to-face friendships. Anxiety over forming relationships may inspire concealment of undesirable aspects of personality or appearance. Online friendships may make it easier to practice image management and hide weaknesses. Face-to-face communication could be perceived as threatening because of the lack of control and greater spontaneity. Our findings concur with previous research showing that rejection-sensitive individuals are more likely to use computer-mediated communication (Blackhart et al., 2014;Farahani et al., 2011). The current study extends the Hyperpersonal Model (Walther et al., 2015) by identifying psychological characteristics of individuals who find computer-mediated communication most advantageous.
We have argued that online friendship may be adaptive for some people. However, it is reasonable to inquire whether there are also maladaptive qualities to online friend ships. Though it is tempting to assume that online friendships are less authentic and satisfying than face-to-face relationships, one might reach a more optimistic conclusion if online intimacies are compared to the alternative of social isolation. Research has shown that fear of intimacy predicts loneliness (Descutner & Thelen, 1991) and has negative effect on self-disclosure and perceived responsiveness in interpersonal relation ships (Manbeck et al., 2020). Perhaps the pursuit of online friendships among those who fear intimacy reduces loneliness. A more concerning result was that online friendship preference predicted problematic internet use in our study. Further research should explore whether online friendship preference is a cause or consequence of problematic internet use. It could be the case that problematic internet users begin to prefer online friendships as a consequence of particularly intense internet use. Future studies should also include a measure of frequency of internet use.
The present study has some limitations. The sample was homogeneous, consisting of young adult college students in Iran, about two thirds of whom were women. Research on online friendship preference has been limited and we have no way of knowing how our results might compare with more diverse older samples, community samples, and samples selected from other cultural groups. Cross-cultural studies are necessary to investigate how findings from Iran reflect online friendship in other societies. We did not have a sample size that permitted the analysis of a separate subsample for investigating predictors of online friendship preference. Using a different subsample from the EFA and CFA analyses would have led to more concise results. Our measure of perceived relationship vulnerability consisted of a single item and we were therefore unable to evaluate the reliability of that measure. Future research should confirm the relationship between online friendship preference and perceived relationship vulnerability using a multi-item measure. Finally, our design is correlational, making it difficult to conclude the direction of cause and effect. For example, we suggest that fear of intimacy is a cause of online friendship preference. However, it is also reasonable to conclude that online friendship preference increases fear of intimacy through negative reinforcement associated with the avoidance of face-to-face interactions. In other words, cultivating exclusively online friendships may cause greater apprehension of face-to-face friendships because they are unfamiliar and seem to require an enhanced level of intimacy that one can easily avoid in online interactions.

Conclusion
Despite its limitations, the present research contributes to the literature on online rela tionships by providing a valid and reliable instrument to measure online friendship preference. Our findings also provide preliminary information about the psychological determinants and consequences of online friendship preference. As the sophistication of internet communication grows, novel strategies of impression management become possible (e.g., digital enhancement of video, use of avatars to create alternative identi ties). Moreover, global events such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic have the power to severely curtail face-to-face interactions. Further research should continue to explore how technology might enhance or impair the formation of interpersonal relationships.

Funding:
The authors have no funding to report.