The Deindividuation Model

In beginning studies, it was shown that people developed deindividuation when presented with an opportunity of anonymity. Deindividuation is when a person loses their sense of self awareness. This is brought on by anonymity and will lead to aggression and antisocial behavior. Deindividuation has been proven by past research. It has also been shown that other things such as group size can lead to deindividuation. Dehumanization is when one person treats another person or persons like objects or animals instead of human beings. The person will say or do things that downplay human life. This helps the person to feel better when they do terrible things that they know are terrible for the victims of their abuse. Dehumanization involves more than …show more content…
The SIDE model explains that if a person is in a crowd, the person doesn’t necessarily lose themselves, but they adapt to the identity that the crowd has formed as one. Although, it is a little different being in the computer world. Due to the fact that the computer world is basically all anonymous, adapting to the group norms is a lot easier than adapting to a physical group. The gamers being able to adapt so well to the group norms tend to keep those group norms as their individual personality. This project is meant for better understanding the SIDE model and the importance of gender cues, group norms, and deindividuation relating with aggressive behavior. As far as ethics, approval was given. In regards to ethics, when studying public behavior there needs to be informed consent even if there is no expectations of danger. Online behavior is not considered public behavior unless the communication is within a group such as a big chat room. The people with in the study did not seek informed consent before the …show more content…
People admitted that they experienced more aggression from others as they played games but they did not come out and accept that they might have joined in the aggression as well. Some people said they were no more aggressive than they were in real life which did not give much indication on how aggressive they are. 17 people said they do seem to be more aggressive but had a “good” reason for being more aggressive. It was also mentioned that it was noticed younger people have more aggressive behavior than older people. This worked well with agreeing to the SIDE model. Personal investment was the second theme that was found within the responses of the data. It was said that those who play competitive games are more aggressive because they are trying to win and that they are more invested in the game than others and want good outcomes. It was said that players can be personally invested in the game financially as well. As players get more invested they become more aggressive. This study does continue to agree with the SIDE