Deindividuation and antinormative behavior: a meta-analysis

“Finally, anonymity is a major factor in determining antinormative behavior (Christopherson, 2007; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Suler, 2004).”

“The logical consequence is that people’s behaviour in such contexts becomes more responsive to group norms (rather than less responsive as would be argued by traditional deindividuation theories; Postmes & Spears 1998).”

“Through a meta-analysis, Postmes and Spears (1998) provide support for the positive effect of group size on the deindividuation effect (i.e., more irrational behaviors occur in a larger group).”

“Research on deindividuation illustrates how self-awareness can restrain antisocial impulses ( Postmes & Spears, 1998 ).”

“The implications for disagreement expressions given the theories of SIP and SIDE are unclear, however.”

“Postmes and Spears (1998) examined 60 studies in a meta-analysis on deindividuation and antinormative behaviors and concluded that the relationship between deindividuation and anti-normative behavior was equivocal.”

“Privacy of tweets may elicit users to disclose themselves in more stigmatized roles (i.e., bully or assistant) or increase cyberbullying, especially if users are anonymous and/or their followers are strangers (Kowalski et al., 2014; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Whittaker & Kowalski, 2015).”

“Experienced anonymity enabled by SNSs lowers the threshold of self-evaluation and the standard for self-regulatory behaviors because bystanders are no longer being seen or identified by their interaction partners (Postmes and Spears 1998).”

“So far, research examining this third mechanism remains scant due to the difficulty ofmeasuring the accessibility of individuals' moral standards (Postmes and Spears, 1998).”

“The group context is likely to have permissive norms regarding stranger harassment and give members a sense of anonymity that should increase adherence to this normative behavior (see Postmes and Spears 1998 ).”

“Indeed, mediated contexts appear to heighten, not reduce, the importance of group norms for individual behavior and group norms promote conformity in online behavior (Postmes & Spears, 1998; Postmes, Spears, & Lea, 2000).”

“Strong research evidence points out that anonymity enhances conformity in the group to group norms, showing that online anonymity can actually enhance peer pressure while simultaneously allowing for greater autonomy, a positive relationship between risk and opportunity (Postmes and Spears 1998).”

“Also, since users are mostly non-visible (Postmes and Spears, 1998), haters do not get an immediate and full reaction of how hate speech affects minority members and breaks social norms, which could contribute to a lower inhibition threshold for verbal attacks (Suler, 2004).”

“This research has led to the view that deindividuation effects may largely be due to people assuming a group identity, which comes with new norms and standards for behavior (Postmes & Spears, 1998; Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995).”

“Previous studies based on SIDE demonstrate that individuals tend to act according to perceived group norms and expectations when social group identity is salient and fellow group members are deindividuated in computer-mediated groups (Chan, 2010; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Postmes et al., 2001).”

“Cyberbullying has an aspect of perceived anonymity for its perpetrators, which results in deindividuation and reduced opportunities for sympathy and remorse (Kowalski et al., 2014; Postmes and Spears, 1998).”

“In other words, the situation of being anonymous is compelling, and can cause a disinhibited state called “deindividuation” that can be potentially harmful to others (Kiesler & Sproull, 1992; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Weicher, 2006).”

“In a meta-analytic study, Postmes and Spears (1998) concluded that the available evidence generally supports the social identity model of deindividuation (Reicher, 1987; Reicher et al.”

“…in their abilities, to engage in status competition, and to succumb to in-group/out-group thinking and feelings of superiority, narcissism, and aggression (Baumeister & Boden, 1998; Goleman, 1989; Janis, 1972; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Van Vugt, De Cremer, & Janssen, 2007; Wrangham & Wilson, 2004).”

“Research in social psychology has shown that the presence of others decreases individual’s (public) self-awareness and enhances feelings of anonymity (Diener, 1976; Festinger et al., 1952; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Prentice-Dunn & Rogers, 1982).”

“More commonly, people attend to more local (emergent) in-group norms, which may on occasion deviate sharply from general social standards (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“However, opposite to the hypothesis that deindi-viduation decreases self-control and diminishes responsiveness to the situation, a meta-analytic review indicated that under deindividuating conditions, participants behaved more in accord with situational norms (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“…extremes of bolstering the self by joining ARR groups (Fritsche et al., 2013; Swann and Buhrmester, 2015), and de-individuated escaping of the self by Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 9 September 2015 | Volume 6 | Article 1325 cleaving to group authority (Postmes and Spears, 1998).”

“Moreover, there is no relationship between flaming and self-awareness, the construct supposedly underlying deindividuation (Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“Although societal norms may commonly devalue violence, various subcultures may endorse norms for masculinity, frontier justice, and retribution, that value the use of violent means of action (Postmes & Spears, 1998; Sherif, 1936).”

“According to classical deindividuation theory, anonymity in the group can lead to reduced self-awareness and influence of social norms that ultimately correspond to anti-normative behaviors [30].”

“This is, in fact, understandable in light of the social identity model of depersonalization effects (SIDE; Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995; Postmes & Spears, 1998), which distinguishes between personal and group identity.”

“Introducing additional social and contextual cues is likely to reduce the presentation of this behaviour by individualising a member of the group [6, 10, 28].”

“A similar argument can be made for a range of core group processes from work on deindividuation (Reicher, 1987; Postmes & Spears, 1998) to research into a range of stereotyping effects (e.g., illusory correlation, outgroup homogeneity; e.g., see Haslam et al., 1996; McGarty, 2012; Oakes et al.,…”

“Moreover, in situations of anonymity and dein-dividuation (Postmes and Spears 1998) like in a virtual world, self-perception reliance on identity cues (and therefore on avatar’s appearance) is enhanced (see Yee et al. 2009).”

“Postmes and Spears (1998) conducted a meta-analysis and found that in contexts that would produce deindividuation (e.g., larger groups), groups seem to establish local group-specific norms.”

“A sizeable number of studies has demonstrated that individuals who believe their identity is unknown are more likely to behave in an aggressive and punitive manner (e.g. Diener et al. 1976; Ellison et al. 1995; Rehm et al. 1987; Postmes and Spears 1998).”

“, 1999) often exasperates carelessness and misbehaviours, as the users perceive themselves as anonymous (Diener et al., 1980; Postmes and Spears, 1998), and do not feel judged or exposed (Whittaker and Kowalski, 2015).”

“In social identity terms, team values refer to the content of social identity (Postmes and Spears 1998, Turner 1999).”

“This finding is consistent with the recent literature on deindividuation (Postmes & Spears, 1998; Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995).”

“Believing that they are anonymous online, people may say and do things that they would not say or do in face-to-face interactions (Diener 1980; Kowalski et al. 2014; Postmes and Spears 1998).”

“Interaction via computers does not necessarily lower inhibitions and increase deindividuation ( Postmes & Spears, 1998 ).”

“…to the social costs for deviating from those expectations, when they feel more personally identifiable; by contrast, when social identity is salient, people conform more strongly to the norms and expectations of members of that social group (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004; Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“The most outstanding theoretical study supporting the principles of this model is the meta-analysis on deindividuation and antinormative behavior carried out by Postmes and Spears (1998).”

“Two meta-analyses that could serve as a model for future meta-analysts are by Postmes and Spears (1998) and Tenenbaum and Leaper (2002).”

“…psychology highlights how broader category knowledge can lead perceivers to ignore a person's individuating features (e.g., stereotypes: Ames, 2004; Postmes & Spears, 1998) and/or assume these features are uniformly consistent with the category (e.g., halo effects: Nisbett & Wilson, 1977; Wills,…”

“The presence of other ingroup members also contributes to men’s sexual harassment proclivity due to the anonymity provided (Postmes & Spears, 1998; see also Gardner, 1995); groups that offer high anonymity to their members and that have harassment-tolerant norms create an environment where an…”

“…(SIDE) theorizes that in the relatively anonymous, or deindividuated, context of text-only computer-mediated communication, individuals will orient more strongly to the group and its norms when a group identity is salient (Postmes and Spears, 1998; Postmes et al., 1998; Spears and Lea, 1994).”

“…induced by online environments cause individuals to act as if public spaces were private (Bassett & O'Riordan, 2002; Binik et al., 1999; Hudson & Bruckman, 2004a; Joinson, 2003; Kiesler et al., 1984; Matheson & Zanna, 1988; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Reid, 1996; Wallace, 1999; Walther, 1996).”

“Although the notion of deindividuation has been falsified multiple times (see Postmes & Spears, 1998, for a review), it is possible that participation in large groups elicits positive ecstatic emotions that motivate extreme actions.”

“The findings from this study were so compelling that they prompted researchers to revisit and reevaluate their understanding of the nature, causes, and consequences of crowd behavior (see Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“Social identity theorists elaborate on the sense of anonymity that increases behavior consistent with the norms of a group with which a person is strongly identified (Hennigan and Spanovic, 2012; Postmes and Spears, 1998).”

“And, some studies report that CMC groups generate more consensus than FTF groups (Lea & Spears, 1991; Postmes & Spears, 1998).”

“For example, Spears and colleagues’ (Postmes & Spears, 1998; Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995a,b; Spears & Lea, 1994) social identity model of deindividuation effects suggests a number of psychological factors that may impact perceptions and behaviors in the context of an identified survey.”

“While one may suspect that this refrainment from revealing personal and contact information reflects a desire for a deindividuated state, and thus disinhibition of one’s behavior on the Internet (Postmes & Spears, 1998), the fact that over half of them posted personal photos on the blogs seems to point to a reluctance…”

“As social identity increases, personal identity decreases, a notion termed depersonalisation (Postmes and Spears, 1998; Turner et al., 1987).”