Walther, J. B., Loh, T., & Granka, L. (2005). Let me count the ways: The interchange of verbal and nonverbal cues in computer-mediated and face-to-face affinity. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 24, 36-65.

Alternative views of computer-mediated communication suggest that it is devoid of affective cues and ill-suited for interpersonal expression, or that the translation of affect into verbal cues facilitates relational communication. Little research has examined basic communication processes by which affective dynamics may be performed online, and there is little empirical research identifying spontaneous affective verbal expressions of affinity in face-to-face interaction. An experiment was conducted in which communicators were prompted to enact greater or lesser affinity in either a face-to-face or synchronous computer chat dyad, in order to assess (1) whether mediated communicators express as much immediacy and affection as unmediated communicators, (2) the proportion of affect expressed verbally online compared to that which is done verbally offline, and (3) the specific behaviors that account for affective communication in each channel. Analyses of partners’ ratings demonstrated equivalency in immediacy and affection, while coders’ analyses of the verbal, kinesic, and vocalic behaviors of face-to-face participants and verbal transcripts from computer users allowed identification of specific cues in each condition that led to these ratings. Results support a primary but previously untested proposition in the Social Information Processing theory of mediated interaction.