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Impact of Anonymity and Identity Deception on Social
Media eWOM
Payal Kapoor, Srinivas Gunta
To cite this version:
Payal Kapoor, Srinivas Gunta. Impact of Anonymity and Identity Deception on Social Media eWOM.
15th Conference on e-Business, e-Services and e-Society (I3E), Sep 2016, Swansea, United Kingdom.
pp.360-370, �10.1007/978-3-319-45234-0_33�. �hal-01702146�
Impact of Anonymity and Identity Deception on Social
Media eWOM
Payal Shrivastava Kapoor
1
, Srinivas Gunta
2
1
Assistant Professor, FORE School of Management, New Delhi, India
{payal@fsm.ac.in}
2
Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management Indore, India
Abstract. Brand-related consumer to consumer communication, eWOM, is
taking place in many forms across the social media space. Rules that governed
credibility assessment of brand-related communication, WOM, in the Face to
Face context may vary on social media, specifi-cally because of anonymity that
is afforded on different social media sites. The current study looks closely on the
impact of anonymity in typical eWOM behaviour context on social media by
drawing observations from a recent case in point and literature. The paper
concludes with a list of relevant factors and propositions that must be tested
empirically to draw greater understanding of the phenomenon.
Keywords: Anonymous communication, eWOM, credibility, computer-
mediated Communication.
1 Introduction
Communication and interaction using social media has spread across cultures globally.
Survey data suggests that more than 1.5 billion people, worldwide, are connected via
social media communities . Users converse and interact via social media communities,
discussion boards, weblogs, social networking sites etc. Increasingly they are turning to
social media to socialize and broadcast their views. This has enabled users’ of the world
to seek and share brand-related experiences and opinions (eWOM) with the click of a
few buttons which in turn has significantly altered consumer decision process [4,15].
It is averred that social media is changing the fundamentals of communication in several
ways. Intimacy of a face to face (FtF) communication has been replaced with a
“broadcast-like ability to communicate with the masses” [ 1, p. 3]. Technology has
enabled interpersonal communication to be visible on a more transparent public domain,
simultaneously accessible to a very large set of audience. It abundantly supports
consumer to consumer conversations, participation, interaction and collaboration which
in turn influence behaviour. Therefore while interacting on social media users are
hugely influenced by other outside their known circle [10]. Moreover, user interaction,
quite like other computer mediated-communication (CMC), may be influenced by
“disinhibition”, enabling them to communicate and behave freely, feel “less restrained,
and express themselves more openly” [15, p. 321]. At the same time, similar to other
forms of CMC, communication via social media may vary in the degree of anonymity.
Anonymity, a social condition, permits user to conceal her identity which further
complicates the process of communication on social media. Different social media
interface permit different levels of anonymity, which may further reinforce the impact
of deindividualisation and hyperpersonal [14].
This article explores the behavioural impact of anonymous eWOM communication by
building on a recently observed case of a local establishment - Lemp Brewpub &
Kitchen, Gurgaon, India. An anonymous weblog detailing a bad experience faced by a
set of customers went viral which tarnished the reputation of the establishment beyond
repair and resulted in its shutting down. This case, simlar to many other recent cases,
raises the question of how an anonymous communication (blog post in Lemp’s case),
reshared by many via various Social Networking Sites(SNSs), can cause serious harm
to a brick and mortar establishment ? A single bad experience shared in form of an
anonymous blog, damaged Lemp’s reputation permanently. This article enquires why
despite of anonymity, deindividualisation and possible threat of identity deception,
anonymous communication is influential, believable and gathers credibility. The paper
explores how in the absence of traditional sources of credibility, users of social media
explore alternate heuristics to assess credibility. It is further suggested that these subtle
embedded alternate heuristics not only influence user disposition but also their
behaviour, observed by the act of resharing of the anonymous blog post. Network-
related features like homophily and perceived social conformity further provide
explanation to the behaviour of resharing. The article concludes with several
propositions derived from the experience of Lemp and support found in literature which
may be further tested as future research.
The remainder of the article is organised like this: it starts with the details of the Lemp
case followed with review of related literature and concludes with propositions.
2 The Case - Lemp brewpub, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
2.1 Anonymous Blog
On Monday, 10th June 2013, an anonymous blog was posted by a group of eight friends
who called themselves “Gurgaon victims” (from here on – group of friends). According
to their blog on Sunday, 9th June 2013, based on a promotion they read on a
www.zomato.com (a popular online restaurant database and review site, Zomato from
here on, Exhibit 1), they decided to go to Lemp Brewpub & Kitchen, a local pub located
in Gurgaon ( satellite city to New Delhi, India), to enjoy a fun filled Hawaiian Brunch.
Unfortunately Lemp could not deliver the Hawaiian Brunch and a series of occurrences
led to altercation between the group of friends and staff. The anonymous blog post
recounted how, as the events unfolded, the expected fun filled Hawaiian Brunch turned
into a harrowing experience that ended for the group of friends at the local police station,
with their parents having to settle the matters. Blog iterated the chronological
occurrences of the incident along with photographs of the incident taking place (Exhibit
3). There were no photographs of the group of friends themselves. The tonality, flow of
details and the facts mentioned in the blog post clearly portrayed the group of friends
as victims and denounce the staff of Lemp as a bunch of goons.
2.2 After Effects
The anonymous blog went viral and the next day, users across social media sites like
Facebook and Twitter woke up to the blog post trending as “How a lunch at Lemp
Brewpub turned out to be the most horrid experience ever” ( Exhibit 4) . Users, many
who had never dined at Lemp, were sharing and resharing the blog post in abundance.
The Facebook page and Twitter handle of Lemp saw no response for a very long time.
Within a few hours, most of the users of social media, who had read the blog were
completely consumed by it. They had declared Lemp to be the villain. They not only
empathised with the group of friends but they extended support by action : posting
supportive comments on the blog; sharing police information on where a formal
complaint can be lodged; re-sharing the blog with more and more people; cracking
“Lemp” jokes on Twitter and elsewhere (Exhibit 5), there by spreading negativity about
it; posting bad reviews on Zomato despite having no first hand experience of the pub.
As the anonymous blog went viral, it pulled the ratings of Lemp down drastically on
Zomato. Within few hours, the number of reviews rose from 382 (before blog) to 900
plus (after blog) with majority of them being negative. The ratings dropped to a poor
1.3 based on 2975 votes (Exhibit 2). Users not only wholeheartedly believe the
anonymous blog, they also indulged in supportive behaviour by resharing the post.
2.3 Epilogue
Even after months , Lemp failed to recover. On Zomato the ratings stood at a poor 1.3,
based on 2101 reviewers . Post this incident whenever similar instances are shared on
social media, users of social media are prone to say “don’t do another Lemp!”
Anonymous bloggers, who concealed their identity, not personally known to many,
successfully influenced thousands of social media users and stained the reputation of an
establishment in the most serious manner.
3 Theoretical Understanding
3.1 Computer-Mediated Communication and Anonymity
. Web 2.0 and new media now provide many virtual avenues for users to engage and
indulge in eWOM, both negative and positive [8]. The above case is an example of other
similar cases that have gone viral on social media in the recent times. A single bad
experience of a consumer is read, shared and reshared by thousands significantly
damaging brand reputation With the spread of internet and the changing media
consumption habits, several studies have found eWOM to be more credible, therefore
influential, than traditional marketer generated communication [7].
eWOM via social media has intrigued researchers in the recent times for several reasons.
From traditional FtF ( face to face) WOM interactions, CMC eWOM diverges
significantly. As already stated, users that connect via social media are diverse and the
environment “opens up the WOM network from one’s immediate contacts to the entire
Internet world”[3, p. 9] therefore eWOM may take place between users who have no
significant prior relationship. Furthermore, just like other CMCs, eWOM via social
media may lack both non-verbal and social context cues, yet users adjust to the new
environment and use alternative linguistic and other forms of heuristics for judgement
[16, 17].
Critical enquiry of the current research is the influence of anonymity. Social media
interactions take place in environment which may afford different degrees of anonymity
to users. SNS like Facebook enables “social interactions through profile-based user
accounts”, identity creation is quite integral to the site hence user anonymity is lower
[12,p 439, 22]. Weblogs on the other hand provide “a more remote space with less
interactivity that may reduce users’ awareness of their audiences”, hence anonymity
varies [9, p 285]: user identity information may be completely anonymous,
pseudonymous, or identifiable. Completely anonymous blogs may still offer a few
selective self-disclosures [16], as was seen in this case of anonymous blog against
Lemp. The anonymous blog revealed no identity information about the bloggers. Level
of anonymity of a social media site may further lead to identity deception. Since Identity
is separated from physical Self “One can have as many electronic personas as one has
time and energy to create” generating convenient possibilities for online deception [5 p.
2, 22, 9]
Therefore the critical question that needs to be asked is - Why did the users of social
media, who read the anonymous blog, felt positively assured of the intentions and
motives of a group of unknowns who reveal no personal information about themselves?
In other words , why do anonymous eWOM communication on social media influence
when source information is either not shared or could be incorrect?
3.2 Credibility of Anonymous Social Media eWOM
The traditional understanding of credibility, based on the extant literature on the subject,
is that it may be derived as a result of interaction of source characteristics, message
characteristics and receiver characteristics [20]. According to Metzger (2007, p. 2078)