Reviewing Stranger on the Internet: The Role of Identifiability through “Reputation” in Online Decision Making

Mirko Duradoni, Stefania Collodi, Serena Coppolino Perfumi and Andrea Guazzini
Additional contact information
Mirko Duradoni: Department of Education, Languages, Intercultures, Literatures and Psychology, University of Florence, 50135 Firenze, Italy
Stefania Collodi: Department of Education, Languages, Intercultures, Literatures and Psychology, University of Florence, 50135 Firenze, Italy
Serena Coppolino Perfumi: Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Andrea Guazzini: Department of Education, Languages, Intercultures, Literatures and Psychology, University of Florence, 50135 Firenze, Italy

Future Internet, 2021, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: The stranger on the Internet effect has been studied in relation to self-disclosure. Nonetheless, quantitative evidence about how people mentally represent and perceive strangers online is still missing. Given the dynamic development of web technologies, quantifying how much strangers can be considered suitable for pro-social acts such as self-disclosure appears fundamental for a whole series of phenomena ranging from privacy protection to fake news spreading. Using a modified and online version of the Ultimatum Game (UG), we quantified the mental representation of the stranger on the Internet effect and tested if people modify their behaviors according to the interactors’ identifiability (i.e., reputation). A total of 444 adolescents took part in a 2 × 2 design experiment where reputation was set active or not for the two traditional UG tasks. We discovered that, when matched with strangers, people donate the same amount of money as if the other has a good reputation. Moreover, reputation significantly affected the donation size, the acceptance rate and the feedback decision making as well.

Keywords: stranger on the Internet; reputation effects; online ultimatum game; adolescents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/13/5/110/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/13/5/110/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jftint:v:13:y:2021:i:5:p:110-:d:544426

Access Statistics for this article

Future Internet is currently edited by Ms. Grace You

More articles in Future Internet from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().