How Cascades of Private Gratitude Sustain Public Goods: Four Field Experiments with Wikipedia

Theories on the emergence and maintenance of cooperation expect expressions of gratitude to confirm essential bonds of reciprocity. In large networks of cooperation and exchange, people contribute to common goods through upstream reciprocity. Scientific theories expect that expressions of gratitude are indirectly caused when people receive benefits from others and communicate back to the provider their feelings and sense of obligation. What if those expressions of gratitude also move forward, influencing further thanks and extended contributions to a community? We tested this hypothesis in a field experiment with Wikipedia communities in the Arabic, German, Polish, and Persian language editions.

关于合作出现与维持的理论预期，感激的表达能够确认互惠关系的根本纽带。在庞大的合作与交换网络中，人们通过上游的互惠为共同利益作出贡献。科学理论预期，当人们从他人处获益并反馈给施惠者其情感与责任意识时，感激的表达将间接产生。倘若这些感激的表达亦能向前传递，进而影响进一步的感谢行为以及对社区的扩展贡献？我们在阿拉伯语、德语、波兰语和波斯语版本的维基百科社区中进行了实地实验，以检验这一假设。