The Impact of Anonymity and Group Identification on Progroup Behavior in Computer-Mediated Groups

Abstract

To contribute to the examination of the effects of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on collaborative work, the impact of anonymity on willingness to exert effort on behalf of a group was examined. Two aspects of anonymity were independently manipulated: visibility of respondents (not visible, visible) and visibility of responses (not visible, visible) to the in-group. The role of degree of identification as moderator of anonymity effects was also examined. The results show that anonymity manipulations affect group members’effort on behalf of the group, but only when group identification is low. Low identifiers chose to work harder with the group either when they were totally anonymous or when they were totally visible to other in-group members. The implications of the results for the understanding of group processes through CMC are discussed.