The Effect of “Anonymous Reviewer”: A Study of Anonymity, Affect Intensity, and Message Valence in the Cyberspace

• Published in: Journal of language and social psychology Vol. 36; no. 5; pp. 504 - 524
• Main Authors: Hong, Cheng, Li, Cong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2017; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Anonymity; Between-subjects design; Computer mediated communication; Emotions; Identity; Internet; Peer review; Positive emotions; Valence; attribution theory; anonymity; information processing theory; language expectancy theory; message valence; affect intensity
• ISSN: 0261-927X; 1552-6526
• DOI: 10.1177/0261927X17697358

This study aims to illustrate how anonymity, together with affect intensity and message valence, affects message receivers’ responses. A 2 (anonymous vs. revealed identity) × 2 (low vs. high affect intensity) × 2 (positive vs. negative valence) between-subjects experiment was conducted. It was found that when message affect intensity was low, an anonymous message was more effective in generating trust toward the message and message processing depth than a message with an identified sender. However, such a difference was insignificant when affect intensity was high. Moreover, a significant interaction effect between affect intensity and message valence was found on message processing depth. When affect intensity was high, a positive message elicited more message processing. When affect intensity was low, there was no significant difference between positive and negative messages.