Identity and deception in the virtual community

Identity plays a key role in virtual communities. In communication, which is the primary activity, knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating an interaction. Yet in the disembodied world of the virtual community, identity is also ambiguous. Many of the basic cues about personality and social role we are accustomed to in the physical world are absent. The goal of this chapter is to understand how identity is established in an online community and to examine the effects of identity deception and the conditions that give rise to it.