- Hypothesis 3 stated that MovieLens users will rate more movies when the perception of both unique contribution and benefits to the community are made salient than when only unique contributions or benefits are made salient
- The results of the study did not support the above hypothesis

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- 397 (47.8%) members logged in and rated at least one movie
- Rated an average of 19.26 movies during the week, which is far higher than the 5.4 movies per week prior to the study
- Merely sending the email led to a dramatic increase in ratings
- Only 3.2% of a matched control group logged in during the week of the experiment
- No difference between the experimental groups regarding the likelihood of logging in at least once during the week

Study 1 Data Analysis and Results

https://presnick.people.si.umich.edu/papers/cscw04/cscw2004preprint.pdf

Using Social Psychology to Motivate Contributions
to Online Communities (Gerard Beenen et al.)

- Hypothesis 1 stated that making unique behavior salient would increase a person’s motivation to rate more movies in general, the results of the study confirmed this hypothesis
- Participants in the unique group rated 18% more movies than those who received the non-unique message
- Participants in the unique group rated 40% more rarely rated movies than those who got the non-unique message


Data Analysis and Results: Uniqueness

- Hypothesis 2 stated that making personal and group benefits salient would increase people’s motivation to rate more movies. The results were more complex
- It seemed that the mention of this benefit decreased ratings rather than increasing ratings
- Participants receiving an email mentioning benefits rated an average of 16.36 movies during the experiment, on average the combined non-benefit groups rated 28.28 movies. This finding disconfirms the prediction from the collective effort model

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