I am usually a good judge of a person. Most of the people I get more friendly with seem honest and trustworthy to me. Sometimes people act flaky, or disappear unexpectedly, and this makes me wonder what is really going on with them.
Of course, I protect myself as best I can. Anonymity allows more honesty and trust, I think. That does not necessarily translate to the real world, but for the most part, it doesn’t matter.
And what’s the point of lying here? Or pretending to be someone you are not? Does it give you jollies? A feeling of power? Are you raging against the machine? I don’t know. It just seems pretty pathetic. There’s nothing really to gain by setting up a new identity, unless it’s to double protect your anonymity to ask a question about something you are ashamed of.
There’s really little down side to trusting people here. It’s set up to encourage that—to make sure people don’t get hurt if they don’t want to be hurt. This gives people more security in talking about things they would never talk about in real life.