False Information in Internet Auction Communities

As one of the most important features, the Internet enables individuals to make their personal thoughts and opinions easily accessible to the global community of Internet users. Numerous studies have shown that the Internet´s anonymity can result in a high rate of false information, which may lead to suboptimal decisions by deceived users. Little is known what drives users to post false information. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify the drivers of false information in communities where users neither have incentives to make false statements nor spread information at all. Thereby, we conduct a laboratory experiment creating a controlled community. By identifying the drivers of false information, we can derive valuable implications for designing Internet communities