Complimenting behaviour on Facebook: responding to compliments in American English

Compliment responses in face-to-face interaction have been extensively studied in different languages and cultures. Studies on complimenting behaviour in virtual contexts are beginning to emerge (cf. Cirillo 2012; Placencia and Lower 2013; Maíz-Arévalo 2013). This paper aims to contribute to this emerging body of work by examining the responses to compliments made on Facebook by a group of women within a Facebook network in the US. While they received 1057 compliments, they produced only 205 responses. These results contrast with findings for face-to-face interactions where non-response is exceptional, suggesting a strong influence of the medium on social norms. Observational data from FB is supplemented with data from interviews with a group of Americans in order to explore appropriateness of non-response behaviour from FB users’ perspective. Regarding compliments which were responded to, acceptance predominated over rejection, in line with previous work within English-speaking communities (Holmes 1986; cf. Herbert 1989; Mustapha 2011)