• The study draws from the Collective Effort Model, theorized by Karau and Williams.
• The collective effort model is a theory to explain why people often work harder individually than in groups. It states that people work hard when they think their effort will help them achieve outcomes that they value
• If members feel that their contributions are redundant or unhelpful, then their contribution is unlikely to influence the group’s outcome

Three main hypotheses:

• Hypothesis 1: MovieLens users will rate more movies when the uniqueness of their contributions is made salient
• Hypothesis 2a: MovieLens users will rate more movies when the personal benefit they receive from doing so is made salient
• Hypothesis 2b: MovieLens users will rate move movies when the benefit they provide to the community is made salient
• Hypothesis 3: 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