The Effects of Percieved Anonymity

There is more than one reason why web users work to remain anonymous, including their concern about being exposed for expressing an opinion unpopular with their employer or other entity. This study of over 100 Wikipedia editors to determine the extent anonymity helps to avoid “groupthink” concludes that few of the subjects would be comfortable acting without the cloak of anonymity, and some still feel as though they are exposed in spite of their identities being shielded from the public:

The overall findings of this study, while encouraging for online communication, should not be overestimated. The qualitative results reveal that approximately 10% of the respondents did perceive some form of danger, whether due to the lack of anonymity or because of the type of scenario, and only 2% actually felt protected by anonymity. These cases contradict the quantitative results and imply that for at least some individuals, anonymity does have an effect on the likelihood of conforming. As one respondent put it, “If I believe this is the right thing to do, I would raise it anonymously. If it was [sic] not anonymous, I would have to think hard about the situation.” This type of statement should serve as a warning. No matter how small the effect of anonymity may be for a majority of a population, there are always cases where people may decide to conform because of the lack of anonymity and therefore denying a group much needed alternatives to be considered. In addition, even under a state of complete anonymity, there are still individuals that would not believe that they are truly anonymous. A participant stated, “I think that compensation [sic] people working more hours is the correct solution but I would be worried about how anonymous in [sic] really is.” The unaccounted variance for predicting the perception of anonymity supports the existence of such sentiments.

Tsikerdekis, M. (2013). The effects of perceived anonymity and anonymity states on conformity and groupthink in online communities: A Wikipedia study. Journal Of The American Society For Information Science & Technology, 64(5), 1001-1015.

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