Open AccessBeyond Anonymity: Network Affordances, Under Deindividuation, Improve Social Media Discussion Quality
Author(s) -
Kokil Jaidka,
Alvin Zhou,
Yphtach Lelkes,
Jana Laura Egelhofer,
Sophie Lecheler
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of computer-mediated communication
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.15
H-Index - 119
ISSN - 1083-6101
DOI - 10.1093/jcmc/zmab019
Subject(s) - anonymity , internet privacy , affordance , operationalization , social media , social psychology , popularity , politics , psychology , computer security , political science , computer science , cognitive psychology , law , epistemology , philosophy
The online sphere allows people to be personally anonymous while simultaneously being socially identifiable. Twitter users can use a pseudonym but signal allegiance to a political party in their profile (e.g., #MAGA). We explore the interplay of these two dimensions of anonymity on a custom-built social media platform that allowed us to examine the causal effects of personal and social anonymity on discussion quality. We find no support for the hypothesis that personal anonymity breeds incivility or lowers discussion quality in discussions on gun rights. On the other hand, when personal anonymity is combined with social identifiability (operationalized as political party visibility), it improves several features linked to discussion quality, that is, higher rationality and lower incivility. We discuss the mechanisms that might explain the results and offer recommendations for future experiments about the design of social media platforms.