Deindividuation and antinormative behavior: a meta-analysis

“In support of the predictions laid out by the SIDE model, a meta-analysis conducted by Postmes & Spears (1998) revealed that rather than engage in antinormative activities, individuals subjected to deindividuation procedures instead conformed their behaviors to local, situation-specific norms…”

“Research on deindividuation (Diener, 1980; Postmes & Spears, 1998) shows that people will say and do things anonymously that they would not say or do in face-to-face interactions.”

“It is hard to quantify collective action, and therefore researchers often resort to controlled and somewhat artificial response environments (survey methodologies or lab settings, see also Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“…to group norms (e.g., Doosje et al. 1999a, Terry & Hogg 1996), which may just as easily result in behavior that may be considered antisocial or deviant from the outside (e.g., Postmes & Spears 1998, Reicher et al. 1995) as prescribe fair behavior towards outgroup members (Jetten et al. 1999).”

“…it would seem that the `one size ®ts all' approach to applying de-individuation to both pro and anti-social behaviour on the Internet (e.g. McKenna & Bargh, 2000) is doomed to failure (see Reicher et al., 1995 and Postmes & Spears, 1998 for a more thorough critique of de-individuation theory).”

“However, subsequent metaanalytic reviews of the CMC literature on this point by Walther et al. (1994) and Postmes & Spears (1998) concluded that there was no overall main effect of CMC to produce greater hostility and aggressiveness among communicants.”

“…since the absence of social cues leads people to feel more distant and anonymous from others and to be perceived in a deindividuated manner, it is likely that social and normative influences may be undermined, causing behavior to become deregulated and anti-social (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“In addition, web-based data collection has the distinctive advantage of increased anonymity (see Joinson, 1999), which is highly relevant for characteristics, beliefs, and behaviors that are socially undesirable (Moshagen, Musch, Ostapczuk, & Zhao, 2010; Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“People will say and do things anonymously that they might be unwilling to say and do directly to someone’s face (Diener, 1980; Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“On the other hand, this anonymity may lead to heightened aggression and inappropriate behaviour (Postmes & Spears, 1998; Postmes, Spears, & Lea, 1998).”

“Moreover, a meta-analysis of all studies involving within-group anonymity showed that behavior becomes more normative rather than more uncontrolled (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“Deindividuation refers to a state in which a person experiences reduced self-evaluation in the context of a group, often leading them to behave with less constraints (Diener, Lusk, DeFour, & Flax, 1980; Festinger, Pepitone, & Newcomb, 1952; Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“Thus, while members of certain groups may indeed use their power to act in discriminatory and oppressive ways, members of other groups may act more prosocially and use their power for constructive purposes (Pfeffer, 1981; Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“…& Davidson, 1990), the consistency between attitudes and behavior (Terry & Hogg, 1996), intergroup discrimination (Jetten, Spears, & Manstead, 1996, 1997), collective behavior (Reicher, 1984, 1987), deindividuation (Postmes & Spears, 1998), and small-group interactions (Postmes et al., 2001).”

“…explanatory role of anonymity has recently returned to the foreground in research proposing an alternative mechanism for explaining deindividuation effects in terms of social identity processes (Lea & Spears, 1991; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995; Spears & Lea, 1992, 1994).”

“Concomitant with this is that external constraints that would typically regulate deviant behavior are rendered less effective (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“However, in common with the classical theory based on anonymity, this theory also views the deindividuated state as one of reduced self-regulation resulting in unresponsiveness to social norms and standards, leading to antinormative behavior (see Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“…consistent with SCT and the social identity model of deindividuation effects, that social identities are most easily deduced when group members are depersonalized, as evidenced by group polarization and norm formation (Postmes & Spears, 1998; Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995; Spears & Lea, 1992).”

“A recent metaanalysis of the deindividuation literature (Postmes & Spears, 1998) demonstrates that, overall, subjects are more likely to adhere to collective norms when they are supposedly deindividuated.”

“Anonymity in CMC: the case of user comment sections One area of CMC that has received considerable attention in light of these findings over recent years is the user comment sections of online news content.”

“Specifically, perceived anonymity of self depicts the sender perspective, highlighting how individuals’ limited identity cues induce a sense of immunity in the online environment (Postmes and Spears 1998).”

“In fact, evidence suggests that CMC environments might actually serve to strengthen adherence to group norms and that de-individuating circumstances have little impact on behavior that is anti-normative according to social norms (Postmes and Spears, 1998; Postmes et al., 2000).”

“The social identity model of deindividuation (SIDE) provides an alternative and competing explanation (Postmes & Spears, 1998; Spears & Lea, 1992).”

“However, when they are anonymous or when their contribution is less identifiable, as in dispersed settings, they lose restraint and it is easier for them to engage in social loafing [75].”

“Greater anonymity is associated with disinhibition and aggressive behavior—potentially because anonymity reduces accountability and thereby licenses bad behavior [12,13].”

“In recent years there have been critiques of this classic approach to deindividuation phenomena (Deiner, 1980; Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“Convincingly, a meta-analysis showed that the results of 60 deindividuation studies could be explained better by the SIDE model than by deindividuation theory itself (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“This idea has received support in other domains, for example, in research showing that anonymous conditions promote normative behavior in offline (Postmes & Spears, 1998) and in online groups (Lea, Spears, & De Groot, 2001; Postmes, Spears, Sakhel, & De Groot, 2001).”

“Deindividuation is a state in which people feel as if they are submerged in the group and do not stand out as individuals (see Postmes & Spears, 1998 , for review of deindividuation studies).”

“Disengagement was coded in a symmetric way as either (1) denial of any experience of prosocial emotion; (2) active dissociation from the target’s experience, through dehumanizing the target or minimizing the task’s negative impact; or (3) dehumanizing the self through either deindividuation ( Postmes & Spears, 1998; R…”

“…actions (Festinger, Pepitone, & Newcomb, 1952; Zimbardo, 1969), a meta-analysis of deindividuation studies reports that anonymous individuals display an increased conformity to situation-specific norms and that they rely on salient contextual cues for guiding behavior (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“…1994; Stromer-Galley & Foot, 2002), deindividuation or depersonalization (e.g., Flanagin, Tiyaamornwong, O’connor, & Seibold, 2002; Lee, 2006; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Postmes, Spears, Sakhel, & De Groot, 2001; Turner, 1991; Weisband, Schneider, & Connolly, 1995), and group norms (Beniger…”

“According to the theory of deindividuation, individuals then perceive less public selfawareness, which distracts them from anticipating possible negative reactions to their behavior (Postmes and Spears, 1998).”

“When group membership is salient, group members have been shown to follow the specific group norm that is contextually relevant (Postmes, 1997; Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“Previous research on intergroup conflict have emphasised the role of social identification and deindividuation, positing that under certain circumstances, the activation of an individual’s social identity leads to the deactivation of her personal identity: this enables the individual to prioritise the group’s values a…”

“Indeed, although deindividuation was initially seen as a negative phenomenon (i.e., which leads to aggressive and antisocial behaviors; see Postmes & Spears, 1998 for an overview), subsequent research has shown that deindividuation is quite neutral but may increase the sensitivity of individuals to…”

“…& Patchin, 2008; Kowalski, Giumetti, Schroeder & Reese, 2012), personality variables such as narcissism (e.g., Ang, Tan & Mansor, 2011), cognitive variables such as moral disengagement (e.g., Pornari & Wood, 2010) and other situational variables such as anonymity (e.g., Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“…differences between CMC and face-toface disclosures might not consider the impact of perceived anonymity because anonymity is largely studied in tandem with groups and group cues, as anonymity is a key assumption of the social identity and deindividuation (SIDE) model (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“Studies have shown that a lack of social identity (Alonzo & Aiken, 2004; Hardaker, 2010; Kiesler et al., 1984; Moore, Nakano, Enomoto, & Suda, 2012; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Postmes, Spears, & Lea, 1998), the perceived intent of the message (Dodge & Coie, 1987; Hardaker, 2010), and individual…”

“However, more recent research has suggested that third parties can promote prosocial as well as antisocial behavior (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“The result is that particular modes of behaviour are prescribed, which is consistent with the normative content of the category in question (Brown & Turner, 2002; Hogg & Turner, 1987; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Reynolds, Turner, & Haslam, 2000).”

“…self-aware and less socially aware), actually has the effect of deper-sonalizing them (Turner, 1982, 1985), that is, making them more aware of their shared group identity and the group identity of others (Lea, Spears, & De Groot, 2001; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Spears, Postmes, Lea, & Watt, 2001).”

“As to how the influence of collective psychology can contribute to anti-social behavior, Postmes and Spears have made a valuable contribution (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“It has been argued elsewhere that the deindividuation that can be provided by means of electronic communication can lead to disinhibition and heightened aggression (Postmes & Spears, 1998; Postmes, Spears, & Lea, 1998), as seen in cyberbullying.”

“But equally important is the “strategic” dimension of SIDE (see Klein, Spears, & Reicher, 2007; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Reicher et al., 1995; Spears & Lea, 1994).”

“Note: In this table, “anonymity” is short for “confidence in wBrS anonymity.” know about them [83].”

“As such, when the embarrassing information is posted only, the target is likely to conclude that the audience size is limited to the disseminator’s social network because the target’s friends (except those in common with the disseminator) cannot view the posted content (Postmes and Spears 1998).”

“Additionally, studies on deindividuation have found that group norms that support disinhibitive and antinormative (i.e., threatening) communication will foster this kind of communication in group members (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“De-individuation is a psychological state where an individual becomes a part of an anonymous crowd and displays more anti-normative and dis-inhibited behavior due to the feeling of unaccountability [78].”

“The SIDE model proposes that anonymity also causes deindividuation in group members, but in this case, deindividuation is defined as a state in which members do not have identifying information regarding other members in the group (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“Research on de-individuation has shown that things said and done anonymously would not occur in face-to-face interactions, when the impact of a certain behaviour on the victim is visible (Diener, 1980; Postmes and Spears, 1998).”

“[14] For a meta-analysis of the psychological literature on deindividuation, see Postmes and Spears (1998).”

“…actions people are likely to feel less personal responsibility for their actions, and collective behaviors may be more extreme than individually-motivated behavior (Festinger, Pepitone, & Newcomb, 1952), or may be governed more by group norms than by individual attitudes (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“Postmes and Spears (1998) conducted a meta-analysis to investigate previous data and compare them to data obtained through research on different deindividuation models.”

“…action has revealed how its origins typically reflect intergroup as well as intragroup dynamics, heightened group identification rather than ‘loss’ of identity, and behaviours that are contextually constrained rather than unbridled expressions of irrational impulses (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“…group members’ common history and identity, their expressed views, a search for distinctiveness from other groups (see Postmes et al. in press for a discussion), and in¯ uential contextual cues in the experiment, their task, or in the procedures imposed by the system used (Postmes and Spears 1998).”

“Though there are some exceptions (e.g., Antonioni, 1994; Hayne, Pollard, & Rice, 2003; Hayne & Rice, 1997; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Postmes, Spears, & Lea, 1998; Rains, in press), most research examines a sender’s motivation to communicate anonymously or the influence of anonymity on a sender’s…”

“…communication are inherently impersonal, some of them provide the user with the ability of anonymity, and combined with the reduced social cues and adult supervision, they may lead young users to effects of de-individualization and aggressive behavior (Postmes & Spears, 1998; Yao & Flanagin, 2006).”

“In addition, social psychological theory suggests that group identity causes individuals to feel less responsible for their behavior, and influences them to conform to situation-specific group norms (cf., Postmes and Spears, 1998; Spears et al., 2001).”

“The social identity/de-individuation effects (SIDE) theory suggests visual anonymity actually leads to greater adherence to social norms, particularly to the extent that personal identity is salient (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”