How the type and valence of feedback information influence volunteers’ knowledge contribution in citizen science projects

Abstract

Citizen science involves non-expert volunteers collaborating to investigate scientific problems. Volunteers’ knowledge contribution is a key premise to the success of citizen science projects. Despite previous research on the type and valence of feedback information, little is known about the main and interactive effects of these two facets of feedback information on volunteers’ knowledge contribution. This study draws on achievement goal theory and hypothesizes how the type and valence of feedback information influence volunteers’ motivations and knowledge contribution. We conducted a three (information type: task, self, and social) by two (information valence: positive and negative) between-subjects experiment with 290 participants to test the proposed research hypotheses. The results suggest task, self, and social feedback had varying impacts on volunteers’ intrinsic motivation (i.e., perceived enjoyment, perceived meaning, and self-expansion). The impact of feedback information type differed by feedback information valence. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed perceived enjoyment, perceived meaning, and self-expansion positively influenced volunteers’ knowledge contribution (perception and performance). The analysis results demonstrated knowledge contribution perception was a mediator between intrinsic motivation and knowledge contribution performance in the domain of citizen science. Our research contributes to the theoretical advancement of applying feedback information in citizen science and provides practical guidelines for human-information interaction design in future citizen science projects.