Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effects - Development of The SIDE Model

Development of The SIDE Model

The model was first named by Lea and Spears (1991) and later developed in a series of publications (Lea & Spears, 1992; Postmes, Spears, & Lea, 1998; Spears & Lea, 1994). The SIDE model took Reicher's ideas about the crowd, and applied and extended them to computer-mediated communication. Early research in this domain suggested that, similar to deindividuation theory, users of online computer were prone to flaming and other disinhibitions due to a reduction in social cues (Kiesler, Siegel, & McGuire, 1984). The SIDE model was developed, in first instance, to account for contradictory effects of social cues in online groups. SIDE thus assumed that effects in the crowd and in online environments showed some similar properties.

The first comprehensive statement of SIDE was by Reicher, Spears, & Postmes (1995). According to SIDE, a Social identity approach can account for many of the effects observed in deindividuation research and in crowd psychology, as well as in computer-mediated communication. For example, deindividuation has been found to foster group identification and to induce greater opinion polarization in small groups communicating online. In order to understand effects of factors such as anonymity and reduced cues on group behavior, one needs to take the social and inter-group context into account. SIDE argues that anonymity and social context in interaction have cognitive and strategic consequences.

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