A common concern is that without individual accountability, anonymity may lead to an overall decrease in productive communication. Certain studies have argued that “Because anonymity removes interpersonal cues, it decreases attention to others, reduces concerns about being positively evaluated by others, and creates an impersonal, task-oriented focus for group interaction. This impersonal focus reduces politeness and tolerance, promotes conflict and hostile behavior, and impedes the development of attraction and interpersonal relations (Jessup, Connolly, & Tansik, 1990; Kiesler et al., 1984; Walther, 1992)” (DeGroot, 528). Lester Faigley echoed this concern, citing The Postmodern Condition wherein the author “Lyotard theorizes that [online] the conversation is inherently agonistic and to speak is to fight. (185)”. A routine visit to any anonymous message board (like Poole’s 4chan) would seemingly confirm this agonistic style of communication. Unlike 4chan, which has been rightly called “The Wild West” of the internet, however, the nature of the classroom provides a natural bridle to these fears. A 2001 study conducted by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology showed that “anonymity increased local group self-categorization but not self-categorization in terms of the preexisting social category that was made salient. These results suggest that the effect of visual anonymity on perceptions and behavior operates primarily at the level of the local group by facilitating construction of relatively transient identifications rather than by reinforcing preexisting identifications at the level of wider social categories” (Lea et. al. 536). In individuals, anonymity de-emphasizes self-identification in terms of larger social categories (such as race, nationality, gender, etc.) but increases identification with localized, smaller groupings. The class itself is one such example of this transient, localized grouping: students from discursive backgrounds gathered with the shared goal of academic success. When communicating online and anonymously within this context, the studies suggest that anonymity will “increase the tendency for interactants to categorize the self in terms of the group, which in turn should increase group attraction” (Lea et. al. 529). In short, students in anonymous communities are more likely to help the group regardless of who may be a part of it.