Does Opponent Rating Influence Your Play?

Sorry. I'll use "vs." or "play" from now on.

:(  I was playing on Facebook and let my guard down against a person with a lower rating (and who was making bad plays) and he checkmated me after some blunders on my part. 

Lesson:  always play the optimal move!!!   

The other person's rating shouldn't matter.  You just shouldn't play sub-optimal moves against someone you think may be weak and unable to exploit you.  And, similarly, we shouldn't believe that a player with a higher rating isn't exploitable, nor let intimidation psych us out of our game! 

The most important way that rating influences my play is when draw offers are made. If the position is complicated and the person offering the draw is 200 points lower rated than I am, I expect to win via a slow positional battle.

If, in the same position, a player rated 200 points higher than me were to offer a draw, I'd look around for tactical shot that he just missed.