Communal and Exchange Relationships and the Effects of Norms on Internet Participation

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a significant rise in the popularity of Web 2.0 applications. Our purpose was to examine the behaviors of Internet users. Voluntary participants (N = 691) were recruited through banners posted on a leading commercial website in Taiwan and were randomly allocated to 7 groups. The between-participants experimental design included 3 forms of payment crossed with 2 levels of payment, and a control condition with no payment. We found that behaviors on the Internet are linked to norms that are followed according to communal or exchange relationships during participation. Therefore, the distinction of communal and exchange relationships can be important in understanding user behaviors on the Internet.

Rewarding More Is Better for Soliciting Help, Yet More So for Cash Than for Goods: Revisiting and Reframing the Tale of Two Markets With Replications and Extensions of Heyman and Ariely (2004)

“…Regarding the willingness to help, they replicated the original finding that in the monetary payment condition, there was a positive relationship between the willingness to help and the payment level. However, while Heyman & Ariely (2004) argued that the payment level would have the same effect when the payment form was monetized goods (i.e., soap with a price tag), Liu et al (2012) failed to find support for payment level affecting monetized goods. Though their research design was different from the original studies, their findings raised doubts regarding the robustness and generalizability of Heyman & Ariely (2004).…”

“…Second, a previous study with a similar experimental paradigm found contradictory results. Following Heyman & Ariely (2004), Liu et al (2012) investigated the relative effectiveness of three payment forms (cash, soap, and soap with a price tag) with two different payment levels (low vs. medium) in encouraging individuals to participate in and take time to respond to a short survey. They failed to find support for effort level change depending on the level of the cash payment.…”