Using Social Psychology to Motivate Contributions to Online Communities

Under-contribution is a problem for many online communities. Social psychology theories of social loafing and goal-setting can lead to mid-level design goals to address this problem. We tested design principles derived from these theories in four field experiments involving members of an online movie recommender community. In each of the experiments participated were given different explanations for the value of their contributions. As predicted by theory, individuals contributed when they were reminded of their uniqueness and when they were given specific and challenging goals. However, other predictions were disconfirmed. For example, in one experiment, participants given group goals contributed more than those given individual goals. The article ends with suggestions and challenges for mining design implications from social science theories.

[1]  B. Butler.  When is a Group not a Group: An Empirical Examination of Metaphors for Online Social Structure , 2003 .

[2]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  CHAPTER 12 – Applying Social Psychological Theory to the Problems of Group Work , 2002 .

[3]  H A Simon,et al.  The information-processing theory of mind. , 1995, The American psychologist.

[4]  H. Reis,et al.  Attraction and close relationships. , 1998 .

[5]  N. Kerr.  Motivation losses in small groups: a social dilemma analysis , 1983 .

[6]  John Riedl,et al.  Is seeing believing?: how recommender system interfaces affect users' opinions , 2003, CHI '03.

[7]  Lawrence J. Sanna,et al.  Self-efficacy theory : implications for social facilitation and social loafing , 1992 .

[8]  J. McHale,et al.  Is seeing believing?: Expectant parents’ outlooks on coparenting and later coparenting solidarity , 2007 .

[9]  E. Deci,et al.  A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. , 1999, Psychological bulletin.

[10]  Jennifer Preece,et al.  Lurker demographics: counting the silent , 2000, CHI.

[11]  F. Maxwell Harper,et al.  An Economic Model of User Rating in an Online Recommender System , 2005, User Modeling.

[12]  James H. S. Bossard,et al.  Residential Propinquity as a Factor in Marriage Selection , 1932, American Journal of Sociology.

[13]  John R Anderson,et al.  An integrated theory of the mind. , 2004, Psychological review.

[14]  S. Duck,et al.  Human relationships, 3rd ed. , 1998 .

[15]  S. Harkins.  Social Loafing and Social Facilitation , 1987 .

[16]  L. Weingart,et al.  Group goals and group performance , 1993 .

[17]  N. Kerr,et al.  Dispensability of member effort and group motivation losses: Free-rider effects , 1983 .

[18]  Edward Alsworth Ross,et al.  Social psychology, an outline and source book. , 1908 .

[19]  H. Tajfel,et al.  An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. , 1979 .

[20]  J J Heckman,et al.  Sources of selection bias in evaluating social programs: an interpretation of conventional measures and evidence on the effectiveness of matching as a program evaluation method. , 1996, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[21]  J. Herbsleb,et al.  Two case studies of open source software development: Apache and Mozilla , 2002, TSEM.

[22]  John R. Anderson,et al.  How Should a Theory of Learning and Cognition Inform Instruction , 2004 .

[23]  Kipling D. Williams,et al.  Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes Social Loafing: a Meta-analytic Review and Theoretical Integration , 2022 .

[24]  Kipling D. Williams,et al.  Social loafing on difficult tasks: Working collectively can improve performance. , 1985 .

[25]  S. Fiske,et al.  The Handbook of Social Psychology , 1935 .

[26]  J. Heckman.  Sample selection bias as a specification error , 1979 .

[27]  S. Karau,et al.  Understanding individual motivation in groups: The collective effort model. , 2001 .

[28]  S. R. Hiltz.  Online communities , 1983 .

[29]  K. Sassenberg.  Common bond and common identity groups on the Internet: Attachment and normative behavior in on-topic and off-topic chats. , 2002 .

[30]  G. Nigel Gilbert,et al.  Simulation for the social scientist , 1999 .

[31]  Dan Cosley,et al.  Think different: increasing online community participation using uniqueness and group dissimilarity , 2004, CHI.

[32]  Donn Byrne,et al.  An Overview (and Underview) of Research and Theory within the Attraction Paradigm , 1997 .

[33]  Wendy A. Kellogg,et al.  Social translucence: an approach to designing systems that support social processes , 2000, TCHI.

[34]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Portholes: supporting awareness in a distributed work group , 1992, CHI.

[35]  Ralph L. Rosnow,et al.  Essentials of Behavioral Research: Methods and Data Analysis , 1984 .

[36]  Ştefan Boncu,et al.  E. Tory Higgins si Arie Kruglanski (coord.), Social psychology. Handbook of basic principles, Guilford, New York, 1997 , 1998 .

[37]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  Toward a “Critical Mass” Theory of Interactive Media , 1987 .

[38]  Aimée A. Kane,et al.  Knowledge transfer between groups via personnel rotation: Effects of social identity and knowledge quality , 2005 .

[39]  Eytan Adar,et al.  Free Riding on Gnutella , 2000, First Monday.

[40]  Eric A. von Hippel,et al.  How Open Source Software Works: 'Free' User-to-User Assistance? , 2000 .

[41]  T. Landauer.  Let's get real: a position paper on the role of cognitive psychology in the design of humanly useful and usable systems , 1991 .

[42]  John R. Anderson,et al.  Cognitive Tutors: Lessons Learned , 1995 .

[43]  E. Higgins,et al.  Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles. , 1996 .

[44]  Rupert Brown,et al.  Blackwell handbook of social psychology: intergroup processes , 2002 .

[45]  J. Hackman,et al.  The design of work teams , 1987 .

[46]  Paul B. Paulus,et al.  Group Influence on Individual Task Performance , 1983 .

[47]  G. Stasser,et al.  Pooling of Unshared Information in Group Decision Making: Biased Information Sampling During Discussion , 1985 .

[48]  S. Harkins,et al.  Effects of task difficulty and task uniqueness on social loafing. , 1982 .

[49]  J. Brehm.  A theory of psychological reactance. , 1981 .

[50]  J. McGrath.  Groups: Interaction and Performance , 1984 .

[51]  P. Markey.  Bystander intervention in computer-mediated communication , 2000 .

[52]  E. A. Locke,et al.  Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation. A 35-year odyssey. , 2002, The American psychologist.

[53]  Robert Axelrod.  Advancing the art of simulation in the social sciences , 1997 .

[54]  Joshua M. Epstein,et al.  Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up , 1996 .

[55]  RavidGilad,et al.  Information Overload and the Message Dynamics of Online Interaction Spaces , 2004 .

[56]  Henry L. Tosi.  A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance , 1991 .

[57]  M. Erez,et al.  Challenge versus threat effects on the goal–performance relationship , 2002 .

[58]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Experiment 1 : Motivating Conversational Contributions Through Group Homogeneity and Individual Uniqueness , 2010 .

[59]  A. Bandura.  Perceived Self-Efficacy in Cognitive Development and Functioning , 1993, Educational Psychologist.

[60]  J. Ledyard.  Public Goods: A Survey of Experimental Research , 1994 .

[61]  Michael J. Prietula,et al.  Simulating organizations: computational models of institutions and groups , 1998 .

[62]  Tx Station.  Stata Statistical Software: Release 7. , 2001 .

[63]  Lori Foster Thompson,et al.  Motivating Online Performance , 2002 .

[64]  Steven W. Duck,et al.  Some Evident Truths About Conversations in Everyday Relationships All Communications Are Not Created Equal , 1991 .