A new scientific study that examines the effects of anonymity and playing with groups of people online games has found, among other things, that anonymous gamers--and males in general--are more likely to cheat.
The study, published recently in the journal behavior information, held at & Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and China, Shanghai Jiao Tong University by Vivian Hsueh-Hua Chen and Wu Yuehua. A group of 941 teens who play massively multiplayer online games at an average of 14 hours per week surveyed for their playing habits. A whopping 70% of them revealed, cheated at one point or another, while only 5% included in the category of researchers that described as "cheaters frequent."
Many of the findings fall in line with previous research, including the fact that women gamers are less likely to cheat than their male counterparts. Playing online with complete strangers--what the study calls "Anonymous gaming"--was found to "significantly increase" players tend to cheat. Meanwhile, the teams that players consider themselves a part of may have a significant impact on their propensity for cheating by "increases [ing] conformity to group norms."
The study "shows that deviant behaviors online game cheating are heavily influenced by people online social groups as they feel that they belong to. An online group, despite the humid, unstable and fictional character, it is powerful and create changing attitudes and opinions about its members. Hence, a behavior that is considered problematic and deviant can be remade with a different interpretation. "
More details about the study is available online here.
Chris Pereira is a freelance writer who spends his spare time agonizing over the final seasons of The X-Files. See what he says on Twitter and follow IGN.
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