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Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal
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The Computers Are Coming, The Computers Are Coming: A Study of Human-Computer Social Interaction

Richard A. Feinberg

Department of Consumer Sciences and Retailing, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907

Kathy M. Walton

Department of Consumer Sciences and Retailing, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907

The proliferation of computers in schools, offices, retail establishments and homes suggests that computers are already affecting the way we work, learn, and live. As programs are developed which enable these machines to perform in a more humanlike manner, obscuring the line between human and machine, we may become less and less willing to take the risk of revealing something about ourselves to anything other than a neutral piece of machinery. This study addressed a fundamental question: Are people more willing to disclose personal information to a computer or to a person? Forty individuals responded to requests for intimate or nonintimate personal information from a computer or another person. It was predicted and found that personal disclosure was greater to a computer on highly intimate issues. Personal disclosure is vital for enlightened self-development, friendship formation, and physical and psychological health. These findings suggest that computers deserve careful consideration as powerful psychological and social agents prior to inviting them into our lives. As consumer and family researchers, home economists are in an advantageous position to recognize, understand, and mold the influence computers will have on us.

Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, Vol. 11, No. 4, 319-326 (1983)
DOI: 10.1177/1077727X8301100401
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