Anonymity in Online Recovery: Measuring the Effects of Verbal-Person Centeredness and Identity Disclosures in Recovery Support

How does online anonymity impact the perceived effectiveness of person-centered recovery support messages? In online health communities, privacy preferences can be at odds with community goals for diversity, similar others, and effective support exchange. Prior work has shown how the multifaceted concept of identity plays an important role in support-seeking behaviors, but its effects concerning support providers are still unclear. Through a mixed-methods controlled online experiment, we demonstrate the effects of different facets of anonymity and person-centeredness in comments on their perceived effectiveness. We found that in instances of low person-centered support, the presence of in-group identity disclosures had the strongest effect on facilitating positive support outcomes. We contextualize our findings with an analysis of participants' motivations for individual support preferences related to person-centered, social identity disclosures, and recovery practices. Finally, we discuss the implications for the design of supporting diverse support preferences in online recovery communities.