- Members were recruited by sending an email inviting them to participate in a movie rating campaign to enhance the rating prediction in MovieLens
- Similarly to study 1, different messages were used in the invitation email to vary participants’ perceptions of their group assignment and goal challenge

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- Overview
- Subjects
- Experimental Manipulations
- Group Assignment
- Goal Specificity

Study 2 Methods

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

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

Study 2 Methods: Overview

- MovieLens members who had logged on at least once in the five-month period prior to the study
- On average, the subjects had rated 147 total movies, about 8 per week in the five months prior to the study
- Of the 900 members contacted, they were able to retain 834 subjects

Study 2 Methods: Subjects

- Manipulated 2 variables: group assignment (2 conditions: group or individual) and specificity of goals (2 conditions: “do your best” or a specific numeric goal)
- The difficulty of the numeric goal varied on 4 levels

Study 2 Methods: Experimental Manipulation

- Subjects in the non-specific goals condition were told to “do your best” to rate the movies
- For individual subjects in the specific goal groups, they were asked to rate either 8, 16, 32, or 64 movies in the week
-  In groups with a specific goal, they were asked to rate either 80, 160, 320, or 640 movies in the week

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