Experimental Research On The Herd Under The Network Anonymity Environment

With the development of Internet technology, people cannot live without the Internet anymore. People chat, shopping, and have entertainments on the Internet. There are more and more behaviors on the Internet. Whether the traditional theory of psychology is still applicable under the Internet environment and what the characteristics they have is one of the psychology research emphases. Study how the psychology theory affect people under the Internet environment helps us better understanding people's behavior on the Internet and it is of great practical significance for the construction of the strong cyberpower of our nation.Conformity has been studied for many years since it was proposed. Researchers have conducted a series of studies on the factors that affect people's conformity behavior. However, there are few experimental studies on conformity under the Internet environment and there are nearly no such studies in our country. Anonymity is a major feature of the Internet, the behavior of people under the web anonymous environment has some new features. This research develops independent investigation pages, use current social hot issues of our country as materials, conduct experimental studies under the real web anonymous environment. Experiment 1 studies on whether the individual will exhibit conformity behavior and what the difference between men and women's conformity behavior under the web anonymous environment. Individuals were randomly assigned to two groups in experiment 1, when the experimental group's individuals answer each of the social hot issues, they see a faked "rate of support", this faked "rate of support" represents the choice that others have already made, control group's individuals don't see this faked "rate of support", experiment investigates whether the individuals will change their choices according to the choices of others. Experiment 2 studies on how the social identity affect people's conformity behavior and what the difference of that effect between men and women under the web anonymous environment. Individuals were randomly assigned to two groups in experiment 2, experimental group's individuals see the faked "rate of support", the difference with experiment 1 is they see the two groups' faked "rate of support", control group's individuals don't see this faked "rate of support", experiment investigates whether the individuals will choose to stay in line with their groups.This study investigate the two experiments' overall results and the results of each questions. Overall results represents that the study take all questions as a whole, and it differs from the results of each questions. The two experiments'results are as below:(1). Taking the eight social hot issues in experiment 1 as the whole investigation object, people exhibit conformity behaviors under web anonymous environment, the choices of others will affect the individual's choice.(2). Taking the eight social hot issues in experiment 1 as the whole investigation object, women have a higher propensity to exhibit conformity behavior under web anonymous environment. Women are more susceptible to the effects of others behavior.(3). Individual who participate in experiment 1 doesn't exhibit conformity behavior on the "ban on cigarettes" issue. On "the abolition of the death penalty", "dog food" issues, women who participate in experiment 1 don't have a higher propensity to exhibit conformity behavior.(4). Taking the three social hot issues in experiment 2 as the whole investigation object and taking the gender groups as the investigation object, social identity has a significant effect on individuals who immersed in a group, it affects their conformity behaviors, individuals tend to be consistent with their group, and this effect has no significant difference between men and women.(5). Social identity do not have a significant effect on the conformity behavior of individuals who participate in experiment 2 on the "network real name system" issue.The above research results are discussed. Finally, the following conclusions are drawn:The conformity phenomenon still exists in the anonymous network environment, individuals tend to change their choices based on the choices of others, differences in conformity behavior among men and women may be caused by research methods, we cannot draw a general conclusion that the tendency of women's conformity behavior is higher than men's, social identity has a significant effect on individuals who immersed in a group, it affects their conformity behaviors, individuals tend to be consistent with their group.