ABSTRACT
According to Altman and Taylor self-disclosure in a relationship is similar to peeling back the layers of an onion. There is a breadth vs depth issue as the outer layers are larger and provide greater breadth of information about a person, such as information about their work, education, family background, hobbies and interests. The overall finding was that although greater levels of self-disclosure are associated with higher relation intimacy and satisfaction in offline romantic relationships, the effect was the opposite in online romantic relationships. It may be worth noting that this effect was not true for non-romantic relationships and was only shown when the disclosures were perceived to have been made when the number of recipients included was high. There is a wealth of research supporting the link between self-disclosure and higher levels of attraction/liking, using a range of participants, in different cultures, in many types of relationships, suggesting that this notion is high in validity.
