The Internet is not going to be a source of anarchic rebellion, according to a new study at Murdoch University’s School of Psychology.

Until recently, speculative hype about the effect of the Internet’s freedom and anonymity on users had been based on very little formal testing about people’s behaviour in cyberspace.

Funded by an Australian Research Grant over three years, Professor Mike Innes and PhD student Adam Proll addressed this issue, with surprising results.

“Basically people are still people in chat rooms, and therefore still conform to society’s rules when they are imposed,” said Professor Innes.

The study tested the behaviour of Internet users by accessing chat rooms, assessing whether the judgement of chat room users could be swayed by the opinions of other participants.

He found that the cloak of anonymity tended to steady the resolve of chat room members, ignoring peer pressure and sticking to their own opinions on issues.

However it was a different story if the chat room leader expressed an opinion.

“If an opinion was reinforced by a figure in authority, chat room participants generally conformed to the popular view,” said Professor Innes.

“Chat rooms are run by authoritarian figures, and participants must conform to the rules to take part. Having definite rules and restrictions seems to encourage people to follow normal protocol observed in society.

“Interestingly, people who said they were female in the chat rooms were more likely to conform to the imposed authority.”

Professor Innes said Internet technology changed rapidly during the research period, and the study repeated tests with the new applications such as graphical representation for the characters in the chat rooms. The results remained consistent throughout the study.

“Chat rooms actually seemed to become increasingly autocratic over time,” he said.

Professor Innes will be expanding his research into cyberspace behaviour to include users of violent Internet games.