Interesting that pseudonymous commentators get both more positive and more negative feedback than real-named commentators; granted, the difference on at least the latter is pretty small, and from the Slate article I have no idea if it’s statistically significant. (Suspect not, actually; if only four percent of the data set came from people posting under real names, the data set would have to be very large for a 3% spread between that and the pseudonymous baseline to be significant.)
Assuming it is, the first possibility that comes to mind is that pseudonyms lend themselves to constructed identity in a way that real names don’t, and that constructed identities tend to be amplified in some sense relative to natural ones, leading to stronger reactions. That’s pretty speculative, though.
Interesting that pseudonymous commentators get both more positive and more negative feedback than real-named commentators; granted, the difference on at least the latter is pretty small, and from the Slate article I have no idea if it’s statistically significant. (Suspect not, actually; if only four percent of the data set came from people posting under real names, the data set would have to be very large for a 3% spread between that and the pseudonymous baseline to be significant.)
Assuming it is, the first possibility that comes to mind is that pseudonyms lend themselves to constructed identity in a way that real names don’t, and that constructed identities tend to be amplified in some sense relative to natural ones, leading to stronger reactions. That’s pretty speculative, though.