The development of electronic communication media technology is like a double-edged sword for human civilization today. The media does not only lead to more flexible work communication process and save time, but also provide a space for someone to express their views, emotions, and debates freely. Cyber incivility is an electronic media communication behavior that violates ethical norms, such as maintaining mutual respect in the work environment. Incivility can be displayed in the use of sarcasm, degrading others, or silently disregarding any short messages, or meeting cancellation in an urgent time.
The study of Lim, Teo and Chin (2008) shows that as many as 91% of workers in Singapore have experienced cyber incivility from superiors. In this regard, the phenomenon of cyber incivility is also experienced by employees in the Indonesian work environment. Data from South East Asia Freedom of Expression Network notes that cases of hate speech and defamation through electronic media communication in Indonesia increased by 79.3% from 2008 to 2017. Various studies say that someone with some experience tend to cause psychological distress, declining work commitment, responsibility avoidance, anxiety, fear that leads to the risk of quitting and moving jobs.
In this regard, Byron (2008) explains that in direct face-to-face communication, the process involves verbal and nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, the amount of voice intonation (paralanguage), social contact signals, so this situation allows more emotions felt by the recipient and the sender of the messages. The verbal and nonverbal signals cause both parties to find clarity easily by asking questions or repeating information directly. In contrast, the electronic media communication process is text-based. The absence of communication partners directly causes limitations in understanding non-verbal cues and delayed feedback. This limitation leads to disinhibition effects that encourage a person to express personal feelings or do things that lead to aggressive and more relaxed and open hostility (Suler, 2004). Unfortunately, empirical studies so far only cover the antecedents of cyber incivility perpetrators from work domain and user personality of communication tools’ point of view, but rarely reviews online characteristics that cause a person to be easily involved in social disinhibition. This study aims to prove the influence of anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, and dissociative imagination on cyber incivility behavior.
Online disinhibition
Referring to Suler (2004), the effect of online disinhibition occurs because of several factors; one of them is anonymity. In an anonymous situation, it allows someone to feel less identified, less responsible, and the behavior of others is unknown. Individuals who are less able to control themselves will express emotions more easily without feeling afraid of the risk or social sanctions. Another factor that is no less important is invisibility. According to Suler (2004), invisibility is a situation where identity is known, but because the communication is not done face to face, the sender of the message feels that all his behavior cannot be seen or heard by the recipient of the message. It does not cause anxiety when they type messages or respond to information, even convey personal feelings that might not be expressed face to face. Furthermore, sometimes the communication is not in real-time so the message sender and recipient are not in sync. Suler (2004) explained that delayed response due to asynchronicity in online communication allows someone to escape responsibility after posting a personal, emotional, or hostile message in electronic media. Therefore, the more someone feels invisible, the easier they will do cyber-incivility behavior.
Thus, it can be concluded that the online disinhibition effect influences cyber incivility. Time asynchronicity allows individuals to reply to a message after a few minutes, hours, days, even months, which causes a delay in feedback. It leads to violations of social norms without feeling guilty or responsible for the actions taken
This study uses correlational design with multiple linear regression analysis techniques. The subjects of the study were 111 workers from various types of work (66 females, 45 males, average age = 32.8739, SD = 5.73) living in Indonesia who were recruited by purposive sampling. The results showed that equality, invisibility and asynchronicity had a significant effect on the presence of cyber incivility.
The implications of this research, we need to be more vigilant and wise in communicating and establishing work interactions through electronic media. Emotionally intelligent individuals are needed in responding to every problem in work interactions to create a conducive work environment with polite and ethical communication behavior.
Author: Fajrianthi
Details of the research available at
PAPER • OPEN ACCESS
Cyber Incivility Perpetrator: The Influenced of Dissociative Anonimity,
Invisibility, Asychronicity, and Dissociative Imagination
To cite this article: S K T Febriana and Fajrianthi 2019 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 1175 012238
View the article online for updates and enhancements.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1175/1/012238/pdf
