[Air-l] research methodology - justification internet and lying

[Jennifer Stromer-Galley]

Angela,
 
Unfortunately, I don't have many good citations of research on lying. I
am sure others on this list do. There's work on play and performance of
alternative identities online (see Brenda Danet's essay in Steve Jones'
Cybersociety 2.0 as an example, or Sherry Turkle's Life on the Screen).
I've seen other research (no cite off the top of my head, though) that
suggests few people actually engage in, for example, gender switching
online. Gender switching, one could argue, is not lying, but in essence
the performance online is one that is somehow different than is true to
one's "nature" (whatever that might be from moment to moment). So, while
it is *possible* for people to play and behave in ways different from
how they might behave offline, there is a real question regarding
whether many people actually take advantage of the textual environment
online to behave differently.
 
My own research on why people talk politics online suggests that, at
least for the folks I interviewed, they felt more comfortable expressing
their true opinions. Because of the online environment, they felt less
inhibited to express their real thoughts on political matters, even when
others found those opinions to be racist, xenophobic, etc. In other
words, they felt less likely to hide their true opinions when debating
online than if they were debating offline. Now, this is reported
behavior, so people hypothetically could be lying to me, but I don't
think so. For one, their statements came spontaneously out of general
questions about why they like participating on their chosen discussion
space. And, second, a number of my interviewees made similar claims.
They can't all be lying to me :-).
 
Now, in this case I'm interested in lying or at least not revealing
one's true opinion online in an argumentation sense, and not whether
they are masquerading some alternative identity. Which raises the
question of in which sense of lying do you mean, performing alternative
identities, or arguing something that is an untruth or against what one
genuinely believes? 
 
~Jenny Stromer-Galley
 
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication, SS 340
University at Albany, SUNY
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
jstromer at albany.edu
518-442-4879 

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