Ethics of Deception in Virtual Communities

Deception is an infrequent but inevitable part of human social interaction. Deception fulfills important human social needs despite its disadvantages. An obvious question is to what extent deception can be justified in virtual communities, and whether the justification could be different than that for deception in traditional societies. While animals and plants blithely use deception (Mitchell & Thompson, 1986), humans are subject to many social constraints that affect the feasibility and suitability of deception.