3 ms·

Unrelated concepts, maybe, but by definition they are not orthogonal in the real world, unfortunately. Statistically, I'd be willing to wager people act worse

Unrelated concepts, maybe, but by definition they are not orthogonal in the real world, unfortunately. Statistically, I'd be willing to wager people act worse when they think nobody is looking. Anonymity just extends this effect elsewhere. People are much less likely to be cruel when people they appreciate could be made aware of it.

mpyne 14y ago
Relevant: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19 http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19 This has actually been studied academically (the "online disinhibition effect"). Anonymity definitely seems to correlate with poor behavior, even if it's not a causal relationship.
- hayksaakian 14y ago
  Counterpoint: forced real names did not improve quality of comments. http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/29/surprisingly-good-evidence-that-real-name-policies-fail-to-improve-comments/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/29/surprisingly-good-evidence-...
  - mpyne 14y ago
    Good point, but I'm not sure that forced real name is really the same as "not anonymous" (despite Randi Zuckerberg's comments on the article). I.e. there's more you get from online anonymity than simply not having your name known. I could know someone is named John Smith for example, and that still wouldn't help me pierce his anonymity unless there were other distinguishing features (picture, phone number, etc.).
- Ygg2 14y ago
  No, it doesn't. I remember an anecdote of a bagel delivery man that calculated the percent of people (donations to the bagel plate were anonymous) that screwed him up was only 15%. So majority people are actually nice even when anonymous. And penny arcade is a comic site, not a dispenser of truth.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - mpyne 14y ago
    I should have mentioned in my comment what the comic did: It is anonymity + audience which is correlated, not anonymity alone. Although your anecdote is just as anecdoty as the comic author's anecdote...
  - qohen 14y ago
    I remember an anecdote of a bagel delivery man that calculated I expect it was about Paul Feldman -- it was a very interesting story -- the guy was an MIT-trained economist who, in frustration at getting nowhere at a certain point in his career, gave it up to deliver bagels, etc. to companies every day and he collected data on people's behavior when it came to leaving payments. The following NY Times Magazine article is by the Freakonomics duo about him (the story made it into the Freakonomics book): http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/magazine/what-the-bagel-man-saw.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/magazine/what-the-bagel-ma... PDF of the same article from one of the authors (i.e. a non-nytimes.com link): http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/WhatTheBagelManSaw.pdf http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/WhatTheBagelMa...

mpyne 14y ago

Relevant: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19 http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19 This has actually been studied academically (the "online disinhibition effect"). Anonymity definitely seems to correlate with poor behavior, even if it's not a causal relationship.

hayksaakian 14y ago
Counterpoint: forced real names did not improve quality of comments. http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/29/surprisingly-good-evidence-that-real-name-policies-fail-to-improve-comments/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/29/surprisingly-good-evidence-...
- mpyne 14y ago
  Good point, but I'm not sure that forced real name is really the same as "not anonymous" (despite Randi Zuckerberg's comments on the article). I.e. there's more you get from online anonymity than simply not having your name known. I could know someone is named John Smith for example, and that still wouldn't help me pierce his anonymity unless there were other distinguishing features (picture, phone number, etc.).
Ygg2 14y ago
No, it doesn't. I remember an anecdote of a bagel delivery man that calculated the percent of people (donations to the bagel plate were anonymous) that screwed him up was only 15%. So majority people are actually nice even when anonymous. And penny arcade is a comic site, not a dispenser of truth.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- mpyne 14y ago
  I should have mentioned in my comment what the comic did: It is anonymity + audience which is correlated, not anonymity alone. Although your anecdote is just as anecdoty as the comic author's anecdote...
- qohen 14y ago
  I remember an anecdote of a bagel delivery man that calculated I expect it was about Paul Feldman -- it was a very interesting story -- the guy was an MIT-trained economist who, in frustration at getting nowhere at a certain point in his career, gave it up to deliver bagels, etc. to companies every day and he collected data on people's behavior when it came to leaving payments. The following NY Times Magazine article is by the Freakonomics duo about him (the story made it into the Freakonomics book): http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/magazine/what-the-bagel-man-saw.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/magazine/what-the-bagel-ma... PDF of the same article from one of the authors (i.e. a non-nytimes.com link): http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/WhatTheBagelManSaw.pdf http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/WhatTheBagelMa...