Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top
AI & SOCIETY
Published in: AI & SOCIETY 3/2017

12-04-2016 | Original Article

Anonymity interacting with participation on a Q&A site

Authors: Malte Paskuda, Myriam Lewkowicz

Published in: AI & SOCIETY | Issue 3/2017

Log in

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

This article presents a study that investigates how anonymity influences user participation in an online question-and-answer platform [Quora (https://​www.​quora.​com/​)]. The study is one step in identifying hypotheses that can be used to address a research and design issue concerning the role of anonymity in online participation, particularly in sensitive situations where people are seeking social support. Based on the literature, we present a model that describes the factors that influence participation. These factors were used when analyzing the answers to questions in the health category on Quora. The results of this study were completed by a survey asking Quora users about their use of the anonymity feature. The main result is that the only significant difference between anonymous and non-anonymous answers is that: with anonymous answers, social appreciation correlated with the answer’s length.
previous article Comparative foundations of Eastern and Western thought
next article A socially inspired energy feedback technology: challenges in a developing scenario

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe




 

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
Footnotes
Literature
Ahn J, Weng C, Butler BS (2013) The dynamics of open, peer-to-peer learning: What factors influence participation in the p2p university? In: 2013 46th Hawaii international conference on system sciences (HICSS), pp 3098–3107
Arguello J, Butler BS, Joyce E, Kraut R, Ling KS, Rosé C, Wang X (2006) Talk to me: foundations for successful individual-group interactions in online communities. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, CHI ’06. ACM, New York, pp 959–968
Bodle R (2013) The ethics of online anonymity or zuckerberg vs. “moot”. SIGCAS Comput Soc 43(1):22–35CrossRef
Burke M, Joyce E, Kim T, Anand V, Kraut R (2007) Introductions and requests: rhetorical strategies that elicit response in online communities. In: C&T '07: Third international conference on communities & technologies 2007, pp 21–40
Burke M, Kraut R (2008) Mind your Ps and Qs: the impact of politeness and rudeness in online communities. In: Conference on computer supported cooperative work, pp 281–284
Chen VH-H, Duh HB-L, Ng CW (2009) Players who play to make others cry: the influence of anonymity and immersion. In: Proceedings of the international conference on advances in computer entertainment technology, ACE ’09. ACM, New York pp 341–344
Chmiel A, Sobkowicz P, Sienkiewicz J, Paltoglou G, Buckley K, Thelwall M, Hołyst JA (2011) Negative emotions boost user activity at BBC forum. Phys A Stat Mech Appl 390(16):2936–2944CrossRef
Cress U (2005) Why member portraits can undermine participation. In: Proceedings of the 2005 conference on computer support for collaborative learning: learning 2005: the next 10 years!, CSCL ’05. International Society of the Learning Sciences, pp 86–90
Edman M, Yener B (2009) On anonymity in an electronic society: a survey of anonymous communication systems. ACM Comput Surv 42(1):5:1–5:35CrossRef
Farzan R, Dabbish LA, Kraut RE, Postmes T (2011) Increasing commitment to online communities by designing for social presence. In: Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on computer supported cooperative work, CSCW ’11. ACM, New York, pp 321–330
Harper FM, Frankowski D, Drenner S, Ren Y, Kiesler S, Terveen L, Kraut R, Riedl J (2007) Talk amongst yourselves: inviting users to participate in online conversations. In: Proceedings of the 12th international conference on intelligent user interfaces, IUI ’07. ACM, New York, pp 62–71
Kang R, Brown S, Kiesler S (2013) Why do people seek anonymity on the internet? Informing policy and design. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, CHI ’13. ACM, New York, pp 2657–2666
Kilner PG, Hoadley CM (2005) Anonymity options and professional participation in an online community of practice. In: Proceedings of the 2005 conference on computer support for collaborative learning: learning 2005: the next 10 years!, CSCL ’05. International Society of the Learning Sciences, pp 272–280
Kraut RE, Fiore AT (2014) The role of founders in building online groups. In: CSCW, pp 722–732
Lapidot-Lefler N, Barak A (2012) Effects of anonymity, invisibility, and lack of eye-contact on toxic online disinhibition. Comput Hum Behav 28(2):434–443CrossRef
Levmore S, Levmore S, Nussbaum M (2010) The offensive internet. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Ling K, Beenen G, Ludford P, Wang X, Chang K, Li X, Cosley D, Frankowski D, Terveen L, Rashid AM, Resnick P, Kraut R (2005) Using social psychology to motivate contributions to online communities. J Comput Mediat Commun 10(4):00–00
Nonnecke B, Preece J (2001) Why lurkers lurk. In: AMCIS conference, Boston
Omernick E, Sood SO (2013) The impact of anonymity in online communities. In: International conference on social computing, SocialCom 2013, SocialCom/PASSAT/BigData/EconCom/BioMedCom 2013, Washington, DC, 8–14 Sept 2013, pp 526–535
Paskuda M, Lewkowicz M (2015) Anonymous Quorans are still Quorans, just anonymous. In: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on communities and technologies, C&T ’15. ACM, New York, pp 9–18
Postmes T, Spears R, Lea M (2002) Intergroup differentiation in computer-mediated communication: effects of depersonalization. Group Dyn Theory Res Pract 6(1):3CrossRef
Preece J, Shneiderman B (2009) The reader-to-leader framework: motivating technology-mediated social participation. AIS Trans Huma Comput Interact 1(1):13–32
Preece JJ, Nonnecke B, Andrews D (2004) The top five reasons for lurking: improving community experiences for everyone. Comput Hum Behav 20(2):201–223CrossRef
Rains SA (2007) The impact of anonymity on perceptions of source credibility and influence in computer-mediated group communication: A test of two competing hypotheses. Commun Res 34(1):100–125MathSciNetCrossRef
Ren Y, Kraut R, Kiesler S (2007) Applying common identity and bond theory to design of online communities. Organ Stud 28(3):377–408CrossRef
Sharma N, Butler BS, Irwin J, Spallek H (2011) Emphasizing social features in information portals: effects on new member engagement. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol 62(11):2106–2120CrossRef
Shiue Y-C, Chiu C-M, Chang C-C (2010) Exploring and mitigating social loafing in online communities. Comput Hum Behav 26(4):768–777CrossRef
Sproull L, Kiesler S (1986) Reducing social context cues: electronic mail in organizational communication. Manag Sci 32(11):1492–1512CrossRef
Suler J (2004) The online disinhibition effect. Cyberpsychol Behav 7(3):321–326CrossRef
Tausczik YR, Dabbish LA, Kraut RE (2014) Building loyalty to online communities through bond and identity-based attachment to sub-groups. In: CSCW, pp 146–157
Tixier M, Gaglio G, Lewkowicz M (2009) Translating social support practices into online services for family caregivers. In: Proceedings of the ACM 2009 international conference on supporting group work, GROUP ’09. ACM, New York, pp 71–80
Tixier M, Lewkowicz M (2015) Looking for respite and support: technological opportunities for spousal caregivers. In: Proceedings of the 33rd annual ACM conference on human factors in computing systems, CHI ’15. ACM, New York, pp 1155–1158
Tsikerdekis M (2013) The effects of perceived anonymity and anonymity states on conformity and groupthink in online communities: a Wikipedia study. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol 64(5):1001–1015CrossRef
Tu C-H (2002) The relationship between social presence and online privacy. Internet High Educ 5(4):293–318CrossRef
van Oostendorp H, van Varik F (2011) Stimulation of activity in online communities. In: Dittmar A, Forbrig P (eds) ECCE. Universitätsdruckerei Rostock, ACM, pp 163–170
Wellman B, Gulia M (1999) Net surfers don’t ride alone: virtual communities as communities. In: Smith MA, Kollock P (eds) Communities in cyberspace. Routledge, London, pp 167–194
Wild F, Stahl C (2007) Using latent semantic analysis to assess social competence. In: Wild F, Kalz M, van Bruggen J, Koper R (eds) Mini-proceedings of the 1st European workshop on latent semantic analysis in technology-enhanced learning. Open University Netherlands, Heerlen, pp 3–4
Wise K, Hamman B, Thorson K (2006) Moderation, response rate, and message interactivity: features of online communities and their effects on intent to participate. J Comput Mediat Commun 12(1):24–41CrossRef
Yamashita N, Kuzuoka H, Hirata K, Kudo T (2013) Understanding the conflicting demands of family caregivers caring for depressed family members. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, CHI ’13. ACM, New York, pp 2637–2646
Zhu H, Kraut R, Kittur A (2012) Effectiveness of shared leadership in online communities. In: Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on computer supported cooperative work, CSCW ’12. ACM, New York, pp 407–416
Zhu H, Zhang A, He J, Kraut RE, Kittur A (2013) Effects of peer feedback on contribution: a field experiment in Wikipedia. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, CHI ’13. ACM, New York, pp 2253–2262
Metadata
Title
Anonymity interacting with participation on a Q&A site
Authors
Malte Paskuda
Myriam Lewkowicz
Publication date
12-04-2016
Publisher
Springer London
Published in
AI & SOCIETY / Issue 3/2017
Print ISSN: 0951-5666
Electronic ISSN: 1435-5655
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-016-0660-9

Other articles of this Issue 3/2017

AI & SOCIETY 3/2017 Go to the issue

Open Forum

Understanding the social impact of ICN: between myth and reality

Original Article

Engineering sustainable mHealth: the role of Action Research

Open Forum

A socially inspired energy feedback technology: challenges in a developing scenario

Original Article

Comparative foundations of Eastern and Western thought

Editorial

Hermeneutic of performing data

Open Forum

Converging technologies and a modern man: emergence of a new type of thinking

Premium Partner

    Image Credits