Social cues and anonymous group interaction using group support systems

A field experiment explored whether "anonymous" comments entered through a group support system could be identified by members of standing groups. Four groups of co-workers reported on the identification of other group members\´ specific comment submissions during anonymous brainstorming sessions. A social network of each group was built from a measure of group-member prior communication. The quadratic assignment procedure was used to determine the significance of the social network and the ability to identify comments. Although members were able to make attributions of authorship for a sample of their submissions, they were highly inaccurate, and this inaccuracy was unassociated with individuals\´ prior total or pairwise communication.<>