Bad behavior online such as cheating in games is strongly influenced by how players identify with gaming communities.

Anonymity and a sense of belonging to social groups within gaming affects in-game cheating -- something which has the capacity to adversely affect the experience of enjoyable gameplay. Cheating can be pretty hard to define in relation to gaming -- you say "morally reprehensible actions", I say "totally legitimate exploit" -- but for the purpose of making a statement on the topic, I define cheating as "strategies that a player uses to gain an unfair advantage over his/her peer players or to achieve a target which is not supposed to be achieved according to the game rules or at the discretion of the game operator".

I have found that playing with strangers (equates with anonymous gaming) significantly increases instances of cheating behavior. But rather than anonymous cheating being the result of reduced self-awareness and reduced inhibition, I believe that it's connected to identification with group norms. That means, rather than being a case of "I'm anonymous I can be as salty as I like", players are cheating because they feel it's a norm within that online gaming community and the only way they stand a chance of raising their status within the community.

In conclusion: "These deviant online behaviors such as game cheating are largely influenced by the online social groups people feel they belong to. An online group, despite its fluid, unstable and imaginary nature, is powerful in constructing and changing its members' attitudes and views on behaviors. Hence, a behavior that is perceived as problematic and deviant can be reconstructed with a different interpretation."

The implication here being that if we can alter what is considered normal in online communities we might be better able to counter toxic behavior such as cheating as well as flaming, trolling and other forms of abuse.