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Does hierarchical badges system affect users’ efforts and opinions? A preliminary study
Author(s) -
Ma Dandan,
Li Shuqing,
Du Jia Tina,
Lu Chao,
Sun Jianjun
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
proceedings of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2373-9231
DOI - 10.1002/pra2.345
Subject(s) - crowdsourcing , affect (linguistics) , social media , internet privacy , computer science , upgrade , world wide web , user generated content , data science , psychology , communication , operating system
Hierarchical badges system is often used to encourage user contribution in many user‐generated content (UGC) platforms. But little is known whether this mechanism is effective in inducing users to provide more substantial and useful contents. In this research, we aim to study how the badge levels impact users’ contribution behavior such as their efforts and opinions, using data from a large online review platform. Our preliminary results show that users increase their efforts such as review frequency and review length as their badge levels upgrade. In terms of opinions they express, users with higher badges are less likely to post extreme ratings. Our finding has important implications for business modes that rely on UGC, such as social question‐and‐answering, social media, and crowdsourcing.