The Effect Of Anonymity On The Computer-mediated Communication Of Shy Individual

In face-to-face communication,shy individuals always appear to be evasive,passive and depressive,with lack of social supports and small circle of friends,and they always are caught in passive communication.Shyness is a critical factor affecting face-to-face communication behaviors,also it is paid more attention to in computer--mediated communication researches.Based on existing researches of shyness and Internet usage,shyness individuals are among the most vulnerable to Internet addiction and problematic Internet use.Compared with face-to-face communication,they are inclined to choose computer--mediated communication.Shy individuals always experience fear of negative evaluations and anxiety facing stranger,however,the anonymity of Internet provides a safe and appropriate communication space.With the connection of Internet and daily life,Internet space is not absolutely anonymous,and different Internet space have different levels of anonymity.Anonymity and shyness become the crucial environment characteristic and individual characteristic affecting computer--mediated communication behaviors.Thus,this study verified the interaction of anonymity and shyness adopting combined empirical analysis method,and explored the effect of anonymity on the computer-mediated communication of different shy individuals.This study adopted combined empirical analysis method,including two studies.Study 1 explored the effect of anonymity on the computer-mediated communication of shy individual and included Study 1a and Study 1b.Study 1a was a non-laboratory survey,and adopted 2(shyness and no-shyness)× 2(strong anonymity and weak anonymity)two factors mixed design,which explored the effect of anonymity on the computer-mediated delayed communication of different shy individuals.Study 1b was a laboratory experiment,adopting 2(shyness and no-shyness)× 2(strong anonymity and weak anonymity)two factors between groups design,which explored the effect of anonymity on the computer-mediated real-time communication of different shyindividuals.Based on the premise of communication,named interpersonal trust,we designed Study 2 to explore whether the effect of anonymity on the computer-mediated communication of shy individual is work with the online interpersonal trust.Study 2 adopt prisoner's dilemma game after computer-mediated communication to explored the effect of anonymity on the online interpersonal trust(the times of choosing cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game)of different shy individuals after computer-mediated communication task,which was the further verification of Study 1 and deeper investigation of computer-mediated communication.Acquired conclusions are presented as follows:(1)Stronger anonymity promotes more computer-mediated delayed communication behaviors of shy individuals,and no-shy individuals show more computer-mediated delayed communication behaviors in the condition of weaker anonymity.(2)Stronger anonymity promotes more computer-mediated real-time communication behaviors of shy individuals,and no-shy individuals show more computer-mediated real-time communication behaviors in the condition of weaker anonymity.(3)Stronger anonymity promotes better online interpersonal trust for shy individuals in computer-mediated communication,but not for no-shy individuals.