사회적 익명성이 온라인 커뮤니티 구성원의 공동체 신뢰도와 인식에 미치는 영향: 인지된 동질성(perceived homophily)과 공감경험(empathy)을 중심으로

초록

Anonymity has always been blamed as a negative characteristic of the online communication environment, while its positive function that facilitates individuals' voluntary communication remains largely overlooked. As an attempt to illuminate the positive aspect of anonymity, this study examines the effects of social anonymity on individuals' perception of and their trust to the community, and how such effects are formed through the mediation of empathy and perceived homophily. First, social anonymity was found to have a positive influence on perceived homophily, which in turn influenced the feeling of empathy, Second, the feeling of empathy and perceived homophily did influence respectively individuals' trust to and sense of the community, Also, social anonymity was found to have a significant effect directly on the trust level of the community. Discussion of the experimental findings and their theoretical implications for future research are followed.

키워드