The Online Disinhibition Effect
Date
2004
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
CyberPsychology & Behavior
Abstract
While online, some people self-disclose or act out more frequently or intensely than they would in person. This article explores six factors that interact with each other in creating this online disinhibition effect: dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination, and minimization of authority. Personality variables also will influence the extent of this disinhibition. Rather than thinking of disinhibition as the revealing of an underlying “true self,” we can conceptualize it as a shift to a constellation within self-structure, involving clusters of affect and cognition that differ from the in-person constellation. (Author Abstract)
Description
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Article
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Keywords
child abuse, adolescents, teens, youth, sexting, disclosure, internet, psychological model
Citation
Suler, John. (2004). The Online Disinhibition Effect. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 7(3), 321-326.