The Internet and Anonymity

Applying war paint, or wearing burglar masks or Ku Klux Klan robes are all examples of protecting one's identity prior to engagement in antisocial behavior. In social psychology, this effect introduced by Leon Festinger in 1952 is called deindividuation, a process wherein normative behavior may cease when people are seen as a group rather than identified individually. Social scientists have identified numerous examples of this phenomenon, demonstrating in a variety of studies that our inhibitions tend to be lowered when we are not held accountable. For example, imagine you are in a classroom with five other students and your professor wants to discuss the topic. You don't feel as inclined to talk in a large classroom of thirty. We sometimes, therefore, do together what we wouldn't do alone. The anonymous environment of the Internet is no exception.

The perceived anonymity of the Internet may prompt individuals to lower their inhibitions because, hey, they don't know me. And they probably never will. This collective mindset has come to loosely be called the Internet Disinhibition Effect.

Examples of this effect at work online are in online "flame wars," which happen between users in a disagreement. An increasingly prominent population of Internet "trolls," or individuals who deliberately get users angry, are another example. Still more tragic examples of this behavior exist like cyberbullying amongst teens. In a few cases, this behavior leads to depression and suicide.

A couple of links concerning these particular cases (but this really skims the surface):
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/TheLaw/teens-charged-bullying-mass-girl-kill/story?id=10231357
http://web.archive.org/web/20071118052137/http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/17/internet.suicide.ap/index.html

Who would engage in this sort of activity if others knew who they were?

Cases like this did not have a clear precedent until only a few years ago, prompting "cyber harassment" laws to crop up all over the country. Unfortunately, checks, balances, and our current political system at large do not adequately address a sudden permutations prompted by the Internet, among other social media.
 
We must therefore break deindividuation online to combat its harmful effects.

The Internet in its current form is not as anonymous as we like to believe, however. Most users probably don't know that their computers and their location are easily identifiable online. Your IP address can be used to geographically locate your computer. In criminal cases, IP addresses are sometimes used as evidence of culpable parties. If individuals knew that their IP broadcasts to most websites, which typically lack secure connections (the exception being some email services, banking websites), they might cease antisocial behaviors. For most users, therefore, it is to their advantage to keep restrain from antisocial behavior.
 Unfortunately savvy hackers can spoof IP information or put it to even more disturbing uses, again perpetuating negative effects of deindividuation.

We can see deindividuation reflected in the organization of limited-liability corporations as well. When individual shareholders are not accountable for the activities of a firm, even if they work for it, the bottom line, profit, sometimes undercuts human capital.

That said, there are positive effects of deindividuation online, such as a tendency toward openness in conversation with strangers. This disinhibiting effect isn't inherently antisocial. It should be noted that deindividuation does not always lead to antisocial behavior, and may in fact lead to prosocial behavior. For example, Johnson and Downing conducted a study in 1979 that found localized norms mediated the deindividuation effect. Their participants were dressed either in outfits reminiscent of KKK outfits, or in nurses' uniforms, and given a task wherein they believed they were administering shocks to another participant. Participants were significantly less likely to shock individuals when they were in a nurse's uniform than in a KKK uniform. At present, it's not clear what "uniform" the Internet gives users. We should strive to make it a positive garb, promoting prosocial behavior.