Online disinhibition effect
- dishibition = lack of restraints
- Introduced by psychologist John Suller
- six factors that change people behaviour online
- benign dishibition
- toxic dishibition
When people have the opportunity to separate their actions from their real world and identity, they feel less vulnerable about opening up. Whatever they say or do can't be directly linked to the rest of their lives.
The invisibility of the Internet prohibits people from reading standard social cues : small changes in facial expression, tone of voice, aversion of eyes, etc . , all have specific connotations in normal face-to-face interaction
The asynchronous nature of the Internet can also affect a person's inhibitions. Immediate, real-time feedback from others tends to have a very powerful effect on the ongoing flow of how much people reveal about themselves
Lacking any kind of visual face-to-face cues, the human mind will assign characteristics and traits to a "person" in interactions on the internet. The mind will associate traits to a user according to our own desires, needs, and wishes: traits that the real person might not actually have.
By combining solipsistic introjection with the imagination, a feeling of escapism is produced. People may see cyberspace as a kind of game where the normal rules of everyday interaction don't apply to them.
While online a person's status in the face-to-face world may not be known to others and it may not have as much impact as it does in the face-to-face world.Online, a person's real life status may not be known to others. According to traditional Internet philosophy, everyone is an equal.
