Abstract
The growth of the Internet at a means of communication has sparked the interest of researchers in
several fields (e.g. communication, social psychology, industrial-organizational psychology) to investigate
the issues surrounding the expression of different social behaviors in this unique social context.
Of special interest to researchers is the increased importance that anonymity seems to play in computer-
mediated communication (CMC). This paper reviews the literature related to the issues of anonymity
within the social context, particularly in CMC, demonstrating the usefulness of established
social psychological theory to explain behavior in CMC and discussing the evolution of the current
theoretical explanations in explaining the effects of anonymity in social behavior in CMC environments.
Several suggestions for future research are proposed in an attempt to provide researchers with
new avenues to investigate how anonymity can play both positive and negative roles in CMC.
2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.