The effect of social anxiety on student interactions in asynchronous online discussion forums as mediated by social presence and moderated by anonymity

Pervasive internet use in higher education has rendered social anxiety a lesser problem in circumventing interactions. However, the attenuation of vitality in interactions still remains a contentious issue, especially in asynchronous online discussions. This study aims to elucidate how anonymity and social presence affect the relationship between avoidance of interaction and peer and content interaction in online discussions. In the true experimental study, we recruited 123 first-year university students, of which 62 were randomly assigned to the anonymous group, and 61 to the identified group. This paper adopts a moderated mediation model, in which anonymity and social presence are included as moderator and mediator, respectively. We revealed that the “straightforward” relationship between avoidance of interaction and peer and content interaction is actually highly complex. The results substantiate a full mediation of social presence and moderation of anonymity in favor of disclosed identity. This study accentuates the critical role of social presence in fostering interactions. The results also suggest that disclosing discussants’ identities might be useful during asynchronous interactions in online discussions for increasing social presence only if their avoidance of interaction is low; in the case of a high avoidance of interaction, anonymity should be preferred.