Doctoral Dissertation: A Sociological Analysis of Generalized Information Exchange

本文研究的目的是了解当信息作为交换对象产生集体利益时，广义信息系统是如何产生并持续存在的。在这种类型的广义交换中，个人为集体利益（信息池）做出贡献，行为者从集体利益中获得奖励。因为从公共信息池中获得奖励而不为之做出贡献是合理的，理解广义信息交换是如何产生和持续的，需要个人克服一个社会困境。我提出了一个理论论点，详细说明了社会心理过程如何作为选择性激励，增加个人对公共信息库的贡献。特别是，当提供信息的相关成本较小时，社会心理因素，如自己信息的受欢迎程度和与观察合作行为相关的规范性义务，会对合作产生相对深刻的影响。本研究的数据将在斯坦福大学社会学系的社会研究实验室收集。大约150名实验对象将参与五种实验条件中的一种，使用专门为本研究开发的计算机化交换计划。本研究的广泛影响包括：在一个信息的即时传递对世界商业、教育、经济和政治至关重要的世界中，了解信息交换系统如何出现并持续存在是我们日益相互关联的社会的核心问题。本研究结果对广义交换理论和现实世界的广义信息交换系统都具有更广泛的意义。本文通过关注作为交换对象的信息和社会心理选择激励在广义交换系统中的作用，扩展了广义交换、集体行动和社会困境的理论和发现。此外，这项研究可以帮助我们理解导致现实世界中普遍的信息交换出现的潜在过程，例如在互联网上的点对点网络中发现的那些信息交换。

The goal of this dissertation research is to understand how generalized information systems emerge and persist when information, as the object of exchange, produces a collective good. In this type of generalized exchange, individuals contribute to a collective good (pool of information), and the rewards that an actor receives come from this collective good. Because it is rational to free ride by receiving rewards from the public pool of information while not contributing to it, understanding how generalized information exchange emerges and persists requires individuals to overcome a social dilemma. I develop a theoretical argument that specifies how social psychological processes act as selective incentives that increase individual contributions to a public pool of information. In particular, when the costs associated with contributing information are small, social psychological factors such as the popularity of one's own information and the normative obligation associated with observing cooperative behavior can have a relatively profound effect on cooperation. The data for this research will be collected at the Stanford University Laboratory for Social Research in the Department of Sociology. Approximately 150 experimental subjects will participate in one of five experimental conditions that use a computerized exchange program that was developed specifically for this research. The broader impacts of this research include the following: In a world where the instantaneous transfer of information is crucial to world business, education, economics, and politics, understanding how information exchange systems can emerge and persist is a central problem for our increasingly interconnected societies. The results of this study have broader implications for both generalized exchange theory and real world generalized information exchange systems. This dissertation extends theory and findings on generalized exchange, collective action, and social dilemmas by focusing on information as the object of exchange and the role of social psychological selective incentives in generalized exchange systems. Additionally, this research can help us to understand the underlying processes that lead to the emergence of real-world generalized information exchanges such as those found in peer-to-peer networks on the Internet.