IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tbitxx/v34y2015i7p658-667.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Group identification as a mediator of the effect of players’ anonymity on cheating in online games

Author

Listed:
  • Vivian Hsueh Hua Chen
  • Yuehua Wu

Abstract

This study aims to add to the discussion about the applicability of the classical deindividuation theory and social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) in explaining online behaviours. It explores the effect of anonymity in facilitating social influence of group identity in online game cheating. A nationally representative survey was conducted face to face. Results from the survey administered in Singapore confirm predictions derived from the SIDE and challenge the classical deindividuation theory. Specifically, it was concluded that the frequency of gaming with online strangers (anonymous gaming) significantly predicted the frequency of cheating in online games. The effect of anonymity on game cheating was found to be significantly mediated by the group identification with online gaming communities/groups. Gender differences were found. Male gamers cheated more frequently than female gamers. Female gamers are more likely to cheat as a consequence of group identification than male gamers. Implications and future research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Vivian Hsueh Hua Chen & Yuehua Wu, 2015. "Group identification as a mediator of the effect of players’ anonymity on cheating in online games," Behaviour and Information Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(7), pages 658-667, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:34:y:2015:i:7:p:658-667
    DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2013.843721
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0144929X.2013.843721
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0144929X.2013.843721?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tommy K. H. Chan & Christy M. K. Cheung & Izak Benbasat & Bo Xiao & Zach W. Y. Lee, 2023. "Bystanders Join in Cyberbullying on Social Networking Sites: The Deindividuation and Moral Disengagement Perspectives," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 828-846, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:34:y:2015:i:7:p:658-667. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tbit .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.