malcolmk14
10-26-2013, 12:50 PM
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/10/the-psychology-of-online-comments.html
Anonymity has also been shown to encourage participation; by promoting a greater sense of community identity, users don’t have to worry about standing out individually. Anonymity can also boost a certain kind of creative thinking and lead to improvements in problem-solving. In a study that examined student learning, the psychologists Ina Blau and Avner Caspi found that, while face-to-face interactions tended to provide greater satisfaction, in anonymous settings participation and risk-taking flourished.
Anonymous forums can also be remarkably self-regulating: we tend to discount anonymous or pseudonymous comments to a much larger degree than commentary from other, more easily identifiable sources. In a 2012 study of anonymity in computer interactions, researchers found that, while anonymous comments were more likely to be contrarian and extreme than non-anonymous ones, they were also far less likely to change a subject’s opinion on an ethical issue, echoing earlier results from the University of Arizona.
An interesting article given our form of discourse here at CP. I've thought about anonymity in online interactions quite a bit, given my relative lack of anonymity here (I post using my real name). Often times I've wanted to post something and thought differently about it because of the fact I do post using my real name.
Sometimes I purposely don't post about complex topics because I don't want my viewpoints to be taken the wrong way or misinterpreted. I would probably post a lot more low-quality comments if I were anonymous on this site.
Multiple studies have also illustrated that when people don’t think they are going to be held immediately accountable for their words they are more likely to fall back on mental shortcuts in their thinking and writing, processing information less thoroughly. They become, as a result, more likely to resort to simplistic evaluations of complicated issues, as the psychologist Philip Tetlock has repeatedly found over several decades of research on accountability.
An interesting discussion either way.
Anonymity has also been shown to encourage participation; by promoting a greater sense of community identity, users don’t have to worry about standing out individually. Anonymity can also boost a certain kind of creative thinking and lead to improvements in problem-solving. In a study that examined student learning, the psychologists Ina Blau and Avner Caspi found that, while face-to-face interactions tended to provide greater satisfaction, in anonymous settings participation and risk-taking flourished.
Anonymous forums can also be remarkably self-regulating: we tend to discount anonymous or pseudonymous comments to a much larger degree than commentary from other, more easily identifiable sources. In a 2012 study of anonymity in computer interactions, researchers found that, while anonymous comments were more likely to be contrarian and extreme than non-anonymous ones, they were also far less likely to change a subject’s opinion on an ethical issue, echoing earlier results from the University of Arizona.
An interesting article given our form of discourse here at CP. I've thought about anonymity in online interactions quite a bit, given my relative lack of anonymity here (I post using my real name). Often times I've wanted to post something and thought differently about it because of the fact I do post using my real name.
Sometimes I purposely don't post about complex topics because I don't want my viewpoints to be taken the wrong way or misinterpreted. I would probably post a lot more low-quality comments if I were anonymous on this site.
Multiple studies have also illustrated that when people don’t think they are going to be held immediately accountable for their words they are more likely to fall back on mental shortcuts in their thinking and writing, processing information less thoroughly. They become, as a result, more likely to resort to simplistic evaluations of complicated issues, as the psychologist Philip Tetlock has repeatedly found over several decades of research on accountability.
An interesting discussion either way.