00:00:00
[Music]
00:00:02
[Applause]
00:00:03
[Music]
00:00:09
growing up I was obsessed with music I
00:00:12
would spend hours watching old videos of
00:00:17
music festivals like big day out Cella
00:00:21
glastenbury I think the thing that I
00:00:23
like the most looking back was I loved
00:00:25
watching the crowd I led seeing them
00:00:28
singing and dancing together and
00:00:30
it was just so good I wanted to be there
00:00:33
so
00:00:35
badly so and I mean of course as soon as
00:00:39
I hit 16 I bought my first big day out
00:00:42
ticket and I got there early I went with
00:00:44
a bunch of friends was a lot of fun we
00:00:47
walked through the gates and headed down
00:00:49
to the first stage of the
00:00:52
day now was a teen I was a pretty quiet
00:00:54
kid I thought I would sit somewhere near
00:00:57
the back bought my head to a song or two
00:01:00
just kind of soak it all in just enjoy
00:01:02
the
00:01:04
moment however when I got down to the
00:01:07
stage when we got into the crowd I
00:01:09
realized
00:01:10
something when you're in that crowd you
00:01:13
can do whatever you want no one was
00:01:16
paying attention to me no one was
00:01:18
watching me everyone was just doing
00:01:21
their own thing and seemingly having a
00:01:23
great
00:01:25
time and what it meant was that all my
00:01:27
insecurities and worries kind of of
00:01:30
disappeared and it left me singing and
00:01:33
dancing in a way that I never otherwise
00:01:34
thought I
00:01:37
would but at the same festival and
00:01:40
honestly at any Festival I've been to
00:01:42
since you also see a different kind of
00:01:45
behavior you see Behavior that's just
00:01:47
deplorable you see violence you see
00:01:49
assault you see sexual harassment you
00:01:51
see
00:01:53
abuse under the guise of the crowd under
00:01:57
the guise of anonymity people can act
00:02:00
This truly horrendous manner which has
00:02:02
awful consequences for everyone else
00:02:05
around
00:02:07
them now taking a step back it's not an
00:02:10
exaggeration to say that the world only
00:02:12
really works as it does because we are
00:02:14
all
00:02:15
identifiable really core things to our
00:02:18
social scaffolding our reputations
00:02:21
cooperation reciprocation social norms
00:02:23
they all work is intended because we are
00:02:26
identifiable
00:02:30
now my background's in social psychology
00:02:32
and what social psychologists do like
00:02:34
all scientists is we try and apply the
00:02:36
scientific method in our case to
00:02:39
understand human behavior why do people
00:02:41
do the things that they
00:02:45
do and what research shows is that when
00:02:47
we're Anonymous we actually behave quite
00:02:50
differently to how we normally would we
00:02:52
change our behavior in some way and what
00:02:55
psychologists argue happens is that we
00:02:57
lose our sense of self we become
00:03:00
disinhibited
00:03:02
deindividuated free from the shackles of
00:03:04
social norms that typically guide our
00:03:08
Behavior now of course anonymity is not
00:03:10
only being in a crowd at a music
00:03:11
festival we can feel Anonymous in a lot
00:03:13
of places joining a protest or TR
00:03:18
calling strangers in the middle of the
00:03:20
night but these occurrences they're not
00:03:23
exactly everyday
00:03:25
things there's only one context one
00:03:29
space
00:03:30
where we can be anonymous
00:03:32
anytime anywhere with just a click of a
00:03:37
button the internet makes being
00:03:39
anonymous very very
00:03:41
easy with just a few clicks I can make a
00:03:45
fake profile on any of the platforms I
00:03:48
could change my profile picture from me
00:03:50
to my car or my dog or I can even make a
00:03:53
fake profile for my dog where I interact
00:03:55
with hundreds of thousands of other
00:03:56
people doing the same thing you get the
00:03:58
point the option the choices to be
00:04:01
anonymous or
00:04:03
endless so we know how anonymity changes
00:04:06
our
00:04:07
Behavior we also know that it gives us
00:04:10
this endless freedom to be or act
00:04:13
however we
00:04:14
want so who seeks it
00:04:17
out why are people motivated what do
00:04:21
they want to do why do people want to be
00:04:27
anonymous to begin answering this
00:04:30
question we conducted surveys we talked
00:04:33
to thousands of people asking them what
00:04:36
motivations they might have to seek
00:04:37
anonymity of if any at
00:04:39
all and from there we looked at what
00:04:43
these were associated with we looked at
00:04:46
personality traits how people use social
00:04:48
media and what people do online more
00:04:53
broadly and the the widest answer to
00:04:56
this question the most General answer
00:04:57
that we found was that people see
00:04:59
anonymity because they want to achieve
00:05:01
their
00:05:02
goals things that they might not believe
00:05:05
to be attainable or achievable when
00:05:07
they're
00:05:08
identifiable but for some reason when
00:05:10
you're anonymous they just become that
00:05:12
little bit easier little bit more
00:05:14
achievable and therefore people seek it
00:05:19
out problematically though one of the
00:05:21
main reasons why people seek anonymity
00:05:23
is because they want to behave toxically
00:05:25
they want to be mean to one another in
00:05:27
some
00:05:28
way online tox
00:05:30
is a major problem I think we all know
00:05:32
this one in five Australian teens have
00:05:34
been Cyber Bullied or trolled online
00:05:37
before and perhaps more surprisingly one
00:05:39
in seven have been the bully or have
00:05:41
been the troll at least once in their
00:05:44
lives from our research what we found is
00:05:47
that people who are motivated to be
00:05:49
toxic online when they're Anonymous
00:05:52
they're more likely to be sadistic they
00:05:54
enjoy hurting or harming one anothers
00:05:57
seeing people suffer
00:05:59
they're also more devious they're
00:06:01
mellian in that they want to manipulate
00:06:05
or exploit other people often to their
00:06:07
own
00:06:09
benefit in many ways anonymity is the
00:06:12
perfect tool for this it's strategically
00:06:14
optimal for these people to be anonymous
00:06:16
because it allows them to reveal all
00:06:19
these malicious aspects of themselves do
00:06:21
all these terrible things without
00:06:23
getting in trouble there's no social
00:06:24
cost involved because no one will see
00:06:27
them
00:06:30
but it's not only about the person bad
00:06:34
people want to do bad things of course
00:06:37
but it's also something about the
00:06:38
situation that really seems to amplify
00:06:40
this
00:06:42
toxicity to look at this we conducted a
00:06:44
study an experiment looking at why
00:06:46
people engage in trolling
00:06:48
online and what we did is is we
00:06:50
collected a random sample of people
00:06:52
people like you and the crowd and we put
00:06:55
them in two
00:06:56
conditions in one side we had people
00:06:58
feel really identifiable really seen
00:07:01
really
00:07:02
visible in the other condition we had
00:07:04
people feel Anonymous made them feel
00:07:07
invisible not
00:07:08
seen and then what we did is we just had
00:07:11
people join this online chat where they
00:07:13
could talk about whatever they wanted
00:07:15
and what we found is those people in the
00:07:17
anonymous condition they were more
00:07:19
likely to write mean and nasty comments
00:07:21
they were more likely to troll each
00:07:22
other than those in the
00:07:25
identifiable so what this shows is that
00:07:27
it's something about the situation it
00:07:29
really does change people's behavior it
00:07:32
really makes them do something that they
00:07:33
might not otherwise do or maybe even a
00:07:35
morally
00:07:37
against and when you combine these two
00:07:39
things together if you have a person
00:07:41
with these malicious intentions and you
00:07:43
put them in a context where they can get
00:07:45
away with it with no real cost that's
00:07:48
how this sort of toxicity really seems
00:07:50
to
00:07:52
flourish a terrible example of this is
00:07:55
what happened to Adam Goods in the
00:07:58
2010s goods were was a AFL player he was
00:08:02
this famous indigenous footballer an
00:08:04
absolute star one of the best of his
00:08:07
generation but in the back end of his
00:08:09
career he was booed
00:08:11
relentlessly largely for calling out a
00:08:13
lot of the racist remarks that had been
00:08:15
Hur towards him for much of his
00:08:18
career and of course these occurred in
00:08:21
the crowds at the stadium with yelling
00:08:23
and booing but it also occurred online
00:08:26
week in week out social media posts
00:08:29
about Adam Goods would come with this
00:08:31
tiate of comments about who he is as a
00:08:35
person really terrible
00:08:38
comments in both cases anonymity really
00:08:42
is a key
00:08:43
factor because people can only do this
00:08:46
when they're alone when they're in the
00:08:48
crowd when they feel Anonymous no one's
00:08:50
saying this stuff when they're
00:08:52
identifiable when they're
00:08:54
one-on-one but the people who want to be
00:08:56
racist who want to taunt or torment
00:08:58
others
00:09:00
sort out these environments they sort
00:09:01
out the crowds of the stadiums they sort
00:09:03
out these online spaces to really show
00:09:06
how they really felt and it was a
00:09:08
problem the AFL couldn't deal with until
00:09:11
Goods had to retire from the
00:09:16
game but it's not only toxicity people
00:09:20
are definitely motivated to seek
00:09:21
anonymity for other reasons the
00:09:24
internet's not just a toxic
00:09:26
environment our research also shows that
00:09:29
it's a really important place for people
00:09:31
to share and engage in different ideas
00:09:34
it's such an important space for
00:09:37
creativity I have a friend who now a
00:09:40
jeweler he makes Rings he makes
00:09:41
necklaces for a living when he started
00:09:44
he just had this Anonymous account
00:09:46
posting the Rings he'd make and you know
00:09:48
when I was asking why like why I do this
00:09:50
all anonymously he said that he's just
00:09:52
not
00:09:53
sure if he likes it if he's any good at
00:09:56
it how other people will perceive it and
00:09:59
what anonymity does is provided this
00:10:02
safety net it made things a little bit
00:10:05
easier to try new things and if things
00:10:07
went South if he got bored if he didn't
00:10:09
want to do it anymore he could have just
00:10:11
deleted the account and it wouldn't have
00:10:13
been attached to his identity no one
00:10:15
would have known except the people he
00:10:16
wanted to
00:10:18
know what anonymity allowed for is this
00:10:22
safety net to launch his career and also
00:10:25
Master his craft get him to a point
00:10:28
where he wanted to be more public and
00:10:30
now do what he does for a
00:10:34
living beyond
00:10:36
creativity anonymity is also important
00:10:38
in developing our identity and our sense
00:10:41
of
00:10:42
self figuring out who we are it takes a
00:10:46
long time a lot of our teenage years are
00:10:48
really spent with this deep uncertainty
00:10:50
about who we are and how we'll fit into
00:10:53
the
00:10:54
world in many ways social media doesn't
00:10:57
make this any easier
00:11:00
on social media you often have to post
00:11:02
these singularized images of yourself
00:11:05
ones that will appease everyone because
00:11:07
your friends will see it your parents
00:11:09
will see it work colleagues extended
00:11:12
family everyone sees this same single
00:11:16
image in Psychology we call this context
00:11:18
collapse and it's quite hard to deal
00:11:20
with because how I talk to my mom isn't
00:11:22
the same way as how I talk to my friends
00:11:24
yet on social media I only get one shot
00:11:26
on the thing I post and both groups are
00:11:28
going to see it
00:11:30
the consequence of this is is that
00:11:33
people only post about a narrow band of
00:11:35
topics when they're identifiable maybe
00:11:37
they talk about their personal
00:11:39
achievements or academic achievements
00:11:41
the TED Talks they've done or maybe they
00:11:44
talk about you know their holidays what
00:11:46
they've done on the
00:11:48
weekend doesn't give much to talk about
00:11:50
different aspects of your
00:11:53
identity as a result a lot of young
00:11:55
people now have secondary or multiple
00:11:57
accounts accounts may be only close
00:11:59
friends know or maybe no one knows
00:12:02
completely Anonymous and it's on these
00:12:04
accounts that people can start talking
00:12:06
about different things they can look at
00:12:08
different parts of their
00:12:09
identity our research shows that people
00:12:12
who are lower in self-esteem maybe more
00:12:14
self-conscious or more socially anxious
00:12:17
they're particularly likely to create
00:12:19
these Anonymous accounts because it
00:12:21
provides them a blank slate to try out
00:12:23
different aspects of their identity
00:12:25
figure out what works what doesn't what
00:12:27
they like and it gives them just you
00:12:29
know makes them feel a little less
00:12:31
vulnerable while they do
00:12:34
it the final part of our research shows
00:12:37
that anonymity is not only important for
00:12:41
individuals it's also important for the
00:12:44
safety and connectedness of many
00:12:46
marginalized
00:12:48
groups queer communities often connect
00:12:52
and engage in these largely Anonymous
00:12:54
spaces maybe like a tumbler or even
00:12:56
these days on Tik Tok as it provides
00:12:58
this space for people to come together
00:13:01
with relative safety and and and have a
00:13:03
community and learn and discover from
00:13:05
one
00:13:06
another and when you talk to people from
00:13:08
queer communities they often say they
00:13:11
actually largely learned about their
00:13:13
Identity or even discovered their
00:13:14
identity in these spaces and without
00:13:18
these spaces it might have taken a lot
00:13:19
longer for them to realize or know who
00:13:21
they
00:13:23
are and those who seek these communities
00:13:28
they often have greatest self-acceptance
00:13:29
they more accepting of who they are as a
00:13:32
person and are also more comfortable
00:13:34
maybe revealing their identity coming
00:13:36
out to friends and family or being more
00:13:41
public tying this all together I think
00:13:43
it's important to remember that since
00:13:45
the dawn of the internet anonymity been
00:13:48
quite
00:13:49
divisive governments the tech companies
00:13:53
journalists entire books have been
00:13:55
written on whether people should be able
00:13:58
to be anonymous and the ramifications of
00:14:00
allowing
00:14:02
it a simple answer might be no of course
00:14:06
not we all see the vitriol and hate that
00:14:08
can fill our phone screens when we
00:14:10
scroll these Anonymous accounts creating
00:14:13
turmoil tension and discomfort for
00:14:16
everyone who's around when they see
00:14:19
it maybe if we got rid of anonymity we
00:14:22
we'd get rid of these people we'd have a
00:14:24
more civil online discourse maybe just a
00:14:27
more pleasant Society in general
00:14:31
but it doesn't really paint the whole
00:14:32
picture does it like the crowds of a
00:14:35
music festival the internet is this
00:14:37
complex Dynamic environment filled with
00:14:40
lots of different people from you know a
00:14:42
variety of places different goals needs
00:14:46
aspirations some of these are deeply
00:14:48
problematic but others are also
00:14:50
incredibly
00:14:51
enriching some even vital for the safety
00:14:54
and connectedness of certain
00:14:57
groups so the next time you're you're
00:14:59
online and you see an anonymous account
00:15:02
I just want you to stop and think who
00:15:05
are these people what are their goals
00:15:08
what might they be doing why would they
00:15:10
want to be anonymous
00:15:13
[Applause]
