Collaborative Research: Status and the Organization of Collective Action

SES-0647169南卡罗来纳大学Brent Dobson南卡罗来纳大学Robb Willer加州大学伯克利分校当一个团体或社会的成员可以通过不为公共利益做出贡献而获得实质性利益时，集体行动问题就存在了，而是选择搭别人的便车。尽管存在这些障碍，但我们知道，各群体往往采取集体行动，并在这样做的过程中产生公共产品。他们如何做到这一点，什么是使他们最成功的条件？ 研究人员将使用地位特征理论来回答三个相互关联的问题，即群体内的地位等级如何组织集体行动，并帮助解决集体行动问题：1）当每个群体成员都采取集体行动时，地位等级如何影响？2)一个团体的地位等级如何影响每个成员的捐赠？3)这些早期的贡献如何影响其他人的贡献？ PI预测，地位较高的群体成员将在集体行动的早期阶段给予，给予更高的水平，并将对其他人的贡献产生更大的影响力。由于地位等级有助于结构序列的贡献，集体行动，地位有区别的群体预计将产生更大的公共产品比地位无区别的群体。PI将在三项实验室研究中测试他们的论点;在所有三项研究中，他们将实验性地操纵状态信息，并测量对与集体行动相关的各种活动的影响。对群体内地位差异如何塑造集体行动的更好理解，对实验室之外的一系列应用大有希望。洞察影响一个群体的生产能力和实现集体目标的因素，对于解决集体行动问题至关重要，如保护环境和其他可耗尽资源，组织灾害响应，慈善活动和有效的组织领导。这些见解也可以用来指导干预措施，以防止不必要的集体行动，如市中心帮派和恐怖组织。特别是，最后的研究结果将提供洞察力是否以及在什么条件下的地位差异可能会导致更大（或更小）的群体生产力。了解地位差异对一个群体生产公共产品的能力的影响，对于最大限度地提高组织、社会运动、慈善活动、非营利组织和其他群体的生产力和效率的应用努力具有潜在的广泛效用。

SES- 0647169Brent SimpsonUniversity of South CarolinaSES-064851Robb WillerUniversity of California, BerkeleyCollective action problems exist when members of a group or society can materially profit by not contributing to the public good, choosing instead to free-ride on the contributions of others. Despite the hurdles involved, we know that groups often do act collectively and, in doing so, produce public goods. How do they do it and what are the conditions that make them most successful? The investigators will use Status Characteristics theory to answer three inter-related questions about how status hierarchies within groups organize collective actions and help solve collective action problems: 1) How does a status hierarchy affect when each group member gives to a collective action? 2) How does a group's status hierarchy affect how much each member gives? 3) How do these early contributions affect how much others' give? The PIs predict that higher status group members will give in earlier stages of collective action, give at higher levels, and will have greater influence over others' contributions than those with less status. Because the status hierarchy helps structure sequences of contributions to collective action, status differentiated groups are expected to produce larger public goods than status undifferentiated groups. The PIs will test their arguments across three laboratory studies; in all three studies, they will experimentally manipulate status information and measure the impact on various activities relevant to collective action. An improved understanding of how collective action is shaped by status differences within groups holds much promise for an array of applications outside the lab. Insight into the factors that affect a group's ability to be productive and achieve collective goals is essential to solving collective action problems like the protection of environmental and other depletable resources, organization of disaster response, charity drives, and effective organizational leadership. These insights can also be harnessed to inform interventions to prevent unwanted collective actions such as inner-city gangs and terrorist organizations. In particular, the results of the final study will offer insights on whether and under what conditions status differentiation might lead to greater (or lesser) group productivity. Understanding the impact of status differentiation on a group's ability to produce public goods is of potentially widespread utility to applied efforts to maximize the productivity and efficiency of organizations, social movements, charity drives, non-profit organizations, and other groups.