Cyberbullying - Effects of online Anonymity and online Aggression

Dominic Padgett

Effects of Online Anonymity and Online Aggression

Kennesaw State University

         Today’s technically obsessed culture has created multiple avenues for people to connect online with friends, family, and new people that have expressed shared interests. Through these connections, people have the ability to share their thoughts, feelings, and opinions about a multiple range of topics and subjects. However, these thoughts, feelings, and opinions are not always positive or productive, and may in fact lean towards being abusive to other users. This is due in part that users within the online community have the ability to also share content under the cover of anoninomity. In comparison to other users, users that share online contributions under the veil of anoninomity have the potential to be more aggressive and verbally abusive than other users since they can share their unfiltered thoughts and emotions freely without being identified. This may result in an expression of thoughts and opinions that are deemed to be politically incorrect, insensitive, or may go against what is social acceptable to say in public. Therefore, this begs the question, does anominity promote abusive behavior among online users? While not all anonomous users are prone to being abusive, literature suggests that anominity of users creates a cover through which users can share their true, unfiltered thoughts and opinions.

        This phenomenon was tested by Bartlett (2013) to understand the prevalence of cyberbullying (CB) when the user was anonomous. In order to conduct the study, the author surveyed 181 undergraduate students in a Midwestern college in the Fall of 2010. The participants answered a questionnaire which asked their level of agreement relating to positive attributes of CB. They were then asked a similar questionnaire relating to their agreement to participating in CB behaviors if the were anonomous. Results were analyzed using differences in correlation test, moderation test, and zero-order correlations. The purpose of this study was to test and validate previous studies which focused on correlations between CB and cyberbullying.

        Bartlett (2013) found that anominity was positively correlated with CB behaviors, thus validating previous studies that users were more likely to participate in CB behaviors if they could remain anonomous. Furthermore, the study also strengthened this hypothesis by performing a similar study within a different time frame. While the participant (who were mostly freshman and sophomore students) may have been more willing to participate in such behavior due to a lack of maturity, the study is still useful in understanding how adolescents and young adults grow to become cyberbullies. Demographics also played a role in the study, as most of the participants were white and female. Future studies will be necessary to understand how race, gender, and class contribute to CB dynamics as well.

        Previous to this study, Barlett & Gentile (2012) sought to answer exactly how cyberbullies are formed within late adolescence. Using a similar tactic as the previous study (using a questionnaire to examine positive attitudes towards cyberbullying and anonymity), Barlett and Gentile (2012) analyzed the results from 493 participants. It is important to note that while the authors found correlations between cyberbullying and anonymity, they did not find any casual relationships. Future studies are needed to discover if there is a possibility of a causal relationship between anominity and CB. If there is one, drivers behind this relationship would need to be identified to discover intervention points to prevent cyberbullying.

        In addition to the ability to remain anonomous, researchers have also studies how types of anominity impact CB behaviors. For instance, Wodzicki et. al (2011) noted that members can share common interests and information within a group, but still remain anonomous. However, anonymity with visualization (AV), and anominity without visualization (AW) cues could also impact the influence of CB behavior. To test this hypothesis, the authors used 113 participants Germain psychological experiment websites that recruited university students. While the study did not indicate gender, the mean age of the participants was 26. The participants answered questions during a simulated group chat, and had to exchange information based upon social dilemmas presented in the questionnaire.

        The results showed that whether participants had AV OR AW, they were willing to share information with group members as long as those members also shared the visions and ideas of the members within the group. This suggests that group activity could also influence online behaviors, whether those behaviors be expressed anonomolously or through some identifying characteristics. While the study could have been improved by indicating whether participant s were male or female, they could have also had a greater range in age. The participants in this study were older, so their thoughts and habits were already formed. A replication  of this study on a younger group of participants could also provide insight into ho group-think influences cyberbullying behaviors.