Social comparisons to motivate contributions to an online community

F. Maxwell Harper, Sherry Xin Li, Yan Chen, Joseph A. Konstan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

45 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is increasingly common for online communities to rely on members rather than editors to contribute and moderate content. To motivate members to perform these tasks, some sites display social comparisons, information designed to show members how they compare to others in the system. For example, Amazon, an online book store, shows a list of top reviewers. In this study, we investigate the effect of email newsletters that tell members of an online community that their contributions are above, below, or about average. We find that these comparisons focus members' energy on the system features we highlight, but do not increase overall interest in the site. We also find that men and women perceive the comparisons very differently.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationPersuasive Technology - Second International Conference on Persuasive Technology, PERSUASIVE 2007, Revised Selected Papers
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages148-159
Number of pages12
ISBN (Print)9783540770053
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Event2nd International Conference on Persuasive Technology, PERSUASIVE 2007 - Palo Alto, CA, United States
Duration: Apr 26 2007Apr 27 2007

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume4744 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Other

Other2nd International Conference on Persuasive Technology, PERSUASIVE 2007
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPalo Alto, CA
Period4/26/074/27/07

Keywords

  • Online community
  • Persuasion
  • Social comparison
  • Social influence

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Social comparisons to motivate contributions to an online community'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this