It's well known that people say and do things in cyberspace that they

wouldn't ordinarily say or do in the face-to-face world. They loosen up,

feel more uninhibited, express themselves more openly. Researchers call
this the "disinhibition effect." It's a double-edged sword. Sometimes
people share very personal things about themselves. They reveal secret
emotions, fears, wishes. Or they show unusual acts of kindness and
generosity. We may call this benign disinhibition.

On the other hand, the disinhibition effect may not be so benign. Out
spills rude language and harsh criticisms, anger, hatred, even threats. Or
people explore the dark underworld of the internet, places of pornography
and violence, places they would never visit in the real world. We might
call this toxic disinhibition.

On the benign side, the disinhibition indicates an attempt to understand

and explore oneself, to work through problems and find new ways of
being. And sometimes, in toxic disinhibition, it is simply a blind
catharsis, an acting out of unsavory needs and wishes without any
personal growth at all.

What causes this online disinhibition? What is it about cyberspace that

loosens the psychological barriers that block the release of these inner
feelings and needs? Several factors are at play. For some people, one or
two of them produces the lion's share of the disinhibition effect. In most
cases, though, these factors interact with each other, supplement each
other, resulting in a more complex, amplified effect.

You Don't Know Me (dissociative anonymity)

As you move around the internet, most of the people you encounter can't
easily tell who you are. System operators and some technologically
savvy, motivated users may be able to detect your e-mail or internet
address, but for the most part people only know what you tell them about
yourself. If you wish, you can keep your identity hidden. As the word
"anonymous" indicates, you can have no name - at least not your real
name. That anonymity works wonders for the disinhibition effect. When
people have the opportunity to separate their actions from their real world
and identity, they feel less vulnerable about opening up. Whatever they
say or do can't be directly linked to the rest of their lives. They don't have
to own their behavior by acknowledging it within the full context of who
they "really" are. When acting out hostile feelings, the person doesn't
have to take responsibility for those actions. In fact, people might even
convince themselves that those behaviors "aren't me at all." In
psychology this is called "dissociation."

You Can't See Me (invisibility)

In many online environments other people cannot see you. As you browse
through web sites, message boards, and even some chat rooms, people
may not even know you are there at all - with the possible exception of
web masters and other users who have access to software tools that can
detect traffic through the site, assuming they have the inclination to keep
an eye on you, one of maybe hundreds or thousands of users. Invisibility
gives people the courage to go places and do things that they otherwise
wouldn't.

This power to be concealed overlaps with anonymity, because anonymity

is the concealment of identity. But there are some important differences.
In text communication such as e-mail, chat, blogs, and instant messaging,
others may know a great deal about who you are. However, they still can't
see or hear you - and you can't see or hear them. Even with everyone's
identity visible, the opportunity to be physically invisible amplifies the
disinhibition effect. You don't have to worry about how you look or
sound when you say (type) something. You don't have to worry about
how others look or sound when you say something. Seeing a frown, a
shaking head, a sigh, a bored expression, and many other subtle and not
so subtle signs of disapproval or indifference can slam the breaks on what
people are willing to express. In psychoanalysis, the analyst sits behind
the patient in order remain a physically ambiguous figure, without
revealing any body language or facial expression, so that the patient has
free range to discuss whatever he or she wants, without feeling inhibited
by how the analyst is physically reacting. In everyday relationships,
people sometimes avert their eyes when discussing something personal
and emotional. It's easier not to look into the other's face. Text
communication offers a built-in opportunity to keep one's eyes averted.

See You Later (asynchronicity)

In e-mail and message boards, communication is asynchronous. People

don't interact with each other in real time. Others may take minutes,
hours, days, or even months to reply to something you say. Not having to
deal with someone's immediate reaction can be disinhibiting. In real life,
it would be like saying something to someone, magically suspending time
before that person can reply, and then returning to the conversation when
you're willing and able to hear the response. Immediate, real-time
feedback from others tends to have a very powerful effect on the ongoing
flow of how much people reveal about themselves. In e-mail and message
boards, where there are delays in that feedback, people's train of thought
may progress more steadily and quickly towards deeper expressions of
what they are thinking and feeling. Some people may even experience
asynchronous communication as "running away" after posting a message
that is personal, emotional, or hostile. It feels safe putting it "out there"
where it can be left behind. In some cases, as Kali Munro, an online
psychotherapist, aptly describes it, the person may be participating in an
"emotional hit and run."

It's All in My Head (solipsistic introjection)

Absent f2f cues combined with text communication can have an

interesting effect on people. Sometimes they feel that their mind has
merge with the mind of the online companion. Reading another person's
message might be experienced as a voice within one's head, as if that
person magically has been inserted or "introjected" into one's psyche. Of
course, we may not know what the other person's voice actually sounds
like, so in our head we assign a voice to that companion. In fact,
consciously or unconsciously, we may even assign a visual image to what
we think that person looks like and how that person behaves. The online
companion now becomes a character within our intrapsychic world, a
character that is shaped partly by how the person actually presents him or
herself via text communication, but also by our expectations, wishes, and
needs. Because the person may even remind us of other people we know,
we fill in the image of that character with memories of those other
acquaintances.

As the character now becomes more elaborate and "real" within our
minds, we may start to think, perhaps without being fully aware of it, that
the typed-text conversation is all taking place within our heads, as if it's a
dialogue between us and this character in our imagination - even as if we
are authors typing out a play or a novel. Actually, even when it doesn't
involve online relationships, many people carry on these kinds of
conversations in their imagination throughout the day. People fantasize
about flirting, arguing with a boss, or very honestly confronting a friend
about what they feel. In their imagination, where it's safe, people feel free
to say and do all sorts of things that they wouldn't in reality. At that
moment, reality IS one's imagination. Online text communication can
become the psychological tapestry in which a person's mind weaves these
fantasy role plays, usually unconsciously and with considerable
disinhibition. All of cyberspace is a stage and we are merely players.

When reading another's message, it's also possible that you "hear" that
person's words using your own voice. We may be subvocalizing as we
read, thereby projecting the sound of our voice into the other person's
message. Perhaps unconsciously, it feels as if I am talking to/with myself.
When we talk to ourselves, we are willing to say all sorts of things that
we wouldn't say to others!

It's Just a Game (dissociative imagination)

If we combine solipsistic introjection with the escapability of cyberspace,

we get a slightly different force that magnifies disinhibition. People may
feel that the imaginary characters they "created" exist in a different space,
that one's online persona along with the online others live in an make-
believe dimension, a dream world separate and apart from the demands
and responsibilities of the real world. They split or "dissociate" online
fiction from offline fact. Emily Finch, an author and criminal lawyer
studying identity theft in cyberspace, has suggested that some people see
their online life as a kind of game with rules and norms that don't apply to
everyday living (pers. comm., 2002). Once they turn off the computer and
return to their daily routine, they believe they can leave that game and
their game-identity behind. Why should they be held responsible for what
happens in that make-believe play world that has nothing to do with
reality? After all, it isn't that different than blasting away at your pals in a
shoot-em up video game... or so some people might think, perhaps
unconsciously.

Although anonymity tends to amplify dissociative imagination,

dissociative imagination and dissociative anonymity usually differ in the
complexity of the dissociated part of oneself. Under the influence of
anonymity, the person may try to be invisible, to become a non-person,
resulting in a reducing or simplifying of identity. During dissociative
imagination, the self that is expressed, but split-off, tends to be more
elaborate.

We're Equals (minimizing authority)

While online a person's status in the face-to-face world may not be

known to others and it may not have as much impact as it does in the
face-to-face world. If people can't see you or your surroundings, they
don't know if you are the president of a major corporation sitting in your
expensive office, or some "ordinary" person lounging around at home in
front of the computer. Even if people do know something about your
offline status and power, that elevated position may have little bearing on
your online presence and influence. In most cases, everyone on the
internet has an equal opportunity to voice him or herself. Everyone -
regardless of status, wealth, race, gender, etc. - starts off on a level
playing field. Although one's status in the outside world ultimately may
have some impact on one's powers in cyberspace, what mostly determines
your influence on others is your skill in communicating (including
writing skills), your persistence, the quality of your ideas, and your
technical know-how.

People are reluctant to say what they really think as they stand before an
authority figure. A fear of disapproval and punishment from on high
dampens the spirit. But online, in what feels like a peer relationship - with
the appearances of "authority" minimized - people are much more willing
to speak out or misbehave.

According to traditional Internet philosophy, everyone is an equal: Peers

share ideas and resources. In fact, the net itself is engineered with no
centralized control. As it grows, with a seemingly endless potential for
creating new environments, many people see themselves as independent-
minded explorers. This atmosphere and philosophy contribute to the
minimizing of authority.

Personality Variables

The disinhibition effect is not the only factor that determines how much
people open up or act out in cyberspace. The strength of underlying
feelings, needs, and drive level has a big influence on how people behave.
Personalities also vary greatly in the strength of defense mechanisms and
tendencies towards inhibition or expression. People with histrionic styles
tend to be very open and emotional. Compulsive people are more
restrained. The online disinhibition effect will interact with these
personality variables in some cases resulting in a small deviation from the
person's baseline (offline) behavior, while in other cases causing dramatic
changes.
True Self?

Does the disinhibition effect release inner needs, emotions, and attributes
that dwell beneath surface personality presentations? Does it reveal your
"true self." For example, a woman with repressed anger unleashes her
hostility online, thereby showing others how she really feels. Or a shy
man openly expresses his hidden affection for his cyberspace companion.

Some people do report being more like their true self in cyberspace. If
personality is constructed in layers, with a core or true self buried beneath
surface defenses and the seemingly superficial roles of everyday social
interactions, then does the disinhibition effect release that true self?

This is a tempting conclusion. In fact, the very notion of a true self is

tempting because it is useful in helping people articulate their experiences
in how and what they express to others about themselves. The concept
also works well, in a humanistic fashion, as a motivational tool in the
process of self-actualization.

However, a comprehensive psychological as well as philosophical

analysis reveals complexities in

This thing called self that stretch far beyond this tempting notion. In an
in-depth exploration of the online disinhibition effect, the idea of a true
self is too ambiguous, arbitrary, and rudimentary to serve as a useful
concept.

Personal and cultural values: Personal and cultural values often dictate
what we consider the true and false aspects of who we are. We more
readily accept as valid those attributes that we regard as positive. An
unpleasant aspect of one's personality is not really "me." However, sexual
and aggressive tendencies, as Freud noted, are basic components of
personality too, as are the psychological defenses designed to control
them.

Personal and cultural values may also label the usually polite persona that
we present to others during everyday living as superficial or false.
However, this persona is the product of years of social and psychological
development. As a critical component of the ego's construction and
functioning, it is essential to interpersonal survival and no less important
or true than other components of intrapsychic structure.
While online people may feel they have more opportunities to present
themselves as they would like to present themselves, particularly in the
carefully composed text of asynchronous communication. They may have
more chances to convey thoughts and emotions that go "deeper" than the
seemingly superficial persona of everyday living. These opportunities are
very valuable aspects of cyberspace, but not necessarily evidence of a
more true self. What we reveal about ourselves spontaneously, often right
on the surface for others to see but without our being consciously
awareness of it, may be just as real and true.

Some people are not fully satisfied with their in-person relationships.
Perhaps they don't have opportunities to develop many relationships, or
those that did develop turned out to be unfulfilling. In cyberspace they
may find the companions they need. They feel more authentic in those
online relationships, and this becomes a viable lifestyle alternative. On
the other hand, some people who need to deny or rationalize the
unfulfilling quality of their in-person relationships may resort to a
personal philosophy that idealizes the disinhibition effect and the notion
that the true self appears online.

The inhibiting self: The concept of disinhibition may mistakenly lead us

into thinking that what is disinhibited is more real or true than the part of
us that inhibits. If we can just peel away repression, suppression, and
other defense mechanisms, we will discover the "real" self that lies
below. Based loosely on the kind of archeological approach to
intrapsychic structure proposed by Freud, this notion suggests that the
personality is constructed in layers, with more true or real features of
personality existing at a deeper level.

This is a simplistic interpretation of the much more dynamic

psychoanalytic model which states that the inhibitory processes of
repression and defense mechanisms are components of personality no less
real or important than others. Psychoanalytic clinicians believe that
understanding defenses is crucial to the success of the therapy because it
reveals hidden thoughts, feelings, and needs. Why does a person repress
something? Why is it being inhibited? Bypassing defenses to get to the
"true" self may also bypass the opportunity to discover aspects of the
inhibiting self that are just as true. When these defenses and elements of
the inhibited self are worked through, remnants of them sometimes
remain to serve an important function. Sometimes they evolve into
productive aspects of one's personality independent of the problematic
emotions that were originally defended.
The same is true online. Some people in some online situations become
disinhibited and reveal aspects of themselves. However, at the same time,
they may not be not grappling with the underlying causes of that
inhibition, and therefore are missing an opportunity to discover
something important about themselves - something very true about
themselves, but often unconscious. If anonymity in cyberspace eases
people's anxiety so they are more comfortable to express themselves, then
they also are bypassing an essential component of who they are.
Important personality dynamics are embedded in that anxiety.

People who are shy in-person may thrive in cyberspace when the
disinhibition effect allows them to express who they "truly" are inside.
This is a wonderful opportunity for them. But why is Joe's shyness a less
true aspect of him compared to other features of his personality,
especially given the fact that his shyness is a prominent feature of his
day-to-day living? If online companions, who had formed the impression
Joe was outgoing, finally met him in-person, might they not conclude that
Joe is "really" shy? And what makes him shy? Are there underlying
psychological problems and anxieties that caused it? Is it a biologically
determined temperment, as much research in developmental psychology
suggests about shyness. Aren't these possible causes of his shyness also
true aspects of Joe? Here we see the arbitrary nature of the "true self"
concept.

Compromise formations: Quite often when people are online and some
aspect of their personality is disinhibited, some other aspect of their
personality is inhibited. After all, the anonymity that contributes to online
disinhibition means that the person is "without a name" - something about
that person is not known. In online communication, consciously or
unconsciously, people conceal or misrepresent aspects of themselves as
often as they honestly reveal aspects of themselves. Any particular media
encourages some aspects of identity to be expressed while inhibiting
other aspects. Something is revealed while something else is hidden.
Expressions of self are compromise formations within any particular
media or communication modality. In email Joe reveals for the first time
to Sue that "I love you," but his voice and body language, which in-
person might reveal unwritten dimensions and even qualifications of his
stated affection, are hidden.

This particular example also points to the polarities that operate within
the dynamics of personality. Sometimes we act, think, or feel one way,
and sometimes the opposite. We have ambivalent, sometimes opposing
emotions. Online Joe says that he truly loves Sue, but in-person his voice
indicates some doubt. Face-to-face he appears angry and rejecting, but
online he admits that he feels insecure and guilty. Different
communication environments convey different facets of these polarities
in self. Here one side appears, and there another. Neither is more true
than another.

Each media allows for a particular expression of self that differs -

sometimes greatly, sometimes subtly - from another media. In different
media people present a different perspective of their identity. Chat, email,
blogs, videocams, telephones, face-to-face conversation, and all types of
communication modalities, each uniquely highlight certain aspects of self
expression and personal identity, while hiding others. The self expressed
in one modality is not necessarily deeper, more real, or more authentic
than another. This multiple modality framework for understanding the
self-within-media bypasses the tendency to become bogged down in
arbitrary arguments about the location of the true or real self.

Self Constellations Across Media

The self interacts with the environment in which it is expressed. It is not

independent of that environment. If a man suppresses his aggression in
life but expresses it online, both behaviors reflect important aspects of his
personality that surface under different conditions. If a woman is shy in-
person but outgoing online, neither self-presentation is more true than the
other. Both are dimensions of who she is, each revealed within a different
situational context.

Instead of thinking that personality is constructed in layers with the

environment "out there" somewhere, we can conceptualize it as an
intrapsyhic field containing clusters or constellations of emotion,
memory, and thinking that are interconnected with certain environments.
Some constellations overlap, others are more dissociated from each other,
with environmental variables influencing those levels of integration and
dissociation. Personality dynamics involve the complex interactions
among these various clusters within the self and in relation to the
environment. An extreme version of these dynamics occur in a multiple
personality disorder, in which consciousness shifts laterally from one
constellation of personality formation to another, with strong dissociative
barriers between those formations. In the more "normal" person, the
distinction between the formations may be less dramatic, and the
dissociative barriers less intense, but the same alterations in identity
expression does occur.
These ideas about self constellations extend as far back as William James'
theory of consciousness shifting from one focus to another within a field
of associations. They also are consistent with contemporary theories
about dissociation and the information processing of experience.

Therefore, we can think of the disinhibition effect as a person shifting to

an "online" personality constellation that may be dissociated - in varying
degrees, depending on the person - from the in-person constellation.
Inhibiting guilt, shame, or anxiety may be features of the in-person self
but not that online self. This constellations model also helps explain other
online phenomena, like identity experimentation, role-playing fantasy
games, multitasking projects, and other subtle shifts in personality
expression as we move from one online environment to another. In fact, a
single disinhibited "online self" probably does not exist at all, but rather a
collection of slightly different constellations of emotion, memory, and
thinking that surface in and interact with different types of online
environments. Different communication modalities enable different
expressions of oneself. They allow us to see the different perspectives of
that complex thing we call "identity."

This is something to keep in mind for online psychotherapy. Using a

multidimensional analysis of the various features of cyberspace, a
comprehensive theory of online psychotherapy explores how the design
of a computer-mediated environment allows for the inhibition,
expression, and development of different aspects of a person's identity.

Altering Self Boundary

My discussion so far rests on the assumption that almost everyone online

tends to be disinhibited, even if the effect is small. However, this isn't
necessarily the case. Some people feel guarded and suspicious about
cyberspace. You don't know who people really are, or how exactly they
may be reacting to you behind their typed words. You don't realize who is
watching you or what they know about you. You can't trust everyone's
intentions. In black hole situations you send out a message and receive
no reply, for reasons not clear. Is anyone really there?

Online environments can stir uncertainty, frustration, and anxiety - even

paranoia about the possible mishaps and calamities that may befall you if
you venture into the wrong environment or connect with the wrong
people. As a result, people sometimes proceed with hesitancy and
caution.
Some vacillate between feeling disinhibited and restrained as they move
in and out of the various areas of their online lifestyle. They shift up and
down what we might consider a disinhibition/inhibition continuum.
However, others may feel both ways simultaneously within a particular
environment or relationship. For example, you reveal intimate details
about yourself to someone you meet online, but you won't give that
person your phone number.

How do we explain these alternating as well as concurrent experiences of

both an open and guarded self? If we focus just on online disinhibition or
only on online suspiciousness, we will overlook an important underlying
psychological experience that gives rise to this disinhibition/inhibition
polarity. That experience is "self boundary."

Self-boundary is the sense of what is me and what is not me. It's the
experience of a flexible perimeter marking the distinction between my
personality - my thoughts, feelings, and memories - and what exists
outside that perimeter, within other people.

A variety of factors contribute to self-boundary, including the

awareness of having a distinct physical body, the perception via the five
senses of an outside world, the feeling of a psychological distinction
between what I know versus what others know about me, and the
sensation of the physical/psychological self moving cohesively along a
linear continuum of past, present, and future.

Life in cyberspace tends to disrupt these factors that support self-

boundary. The physical body and its five senses no longer play as crucial
a role as in face-to-face relationships. What others know or don't know
about me is not always clear. The feeling of a linear past, present, and
future becomes more obscure as we move back and forth through
synchronous and asynchronous communication. As a result, this altered
state of consciousness in cyberspace tends to shift or destabilize self-
boundary. The distinction between inner-me and outer-other is not as
clear. The person shifts to what psychoanalytic theory calls "primary
process thinking" in which boundaries between self and other
representations become more diffuse, and thinking becomes more
subjective and emotion-centered. Within the transitional space of online
communication, the psyches of self and other feel like they might be
overlapping. We allow the hidden self to surface because we no longer
experience it as a purely inner self; but at the same time we also sense,
sometimes vaguely and sometimes distinctly, the intrusion of an
unknown other into our private world, which results in suspicion, anxiety,
and the need to defend our exposed and vulnerable intrapsychic territory.

No doubt, there are important individual differences in how people shift

along the inhibition/disinhibition continuum. The effect of inhibition or
disinhibition might be weak or strong, depending on the person and the
situation. People might experience small or wide oscillations between the
two polarities. Some might be more susceptible to inhibition than to
disinhibition, or vice versa. Studying what is revealed or hidden about
people within the wide range of online environments can become a
laboratory for understanding the subtle dynamics of the self.