INCREASING THE WILLINGNESS TO COLLABORATE ONLINE: AN ANALYSIS OF SENTIMENT-DRIVEN INTERACTIONS IN PEER CONTENT PRODUCTION

Abstract

We investigate mechanisms that trigger collaborative work behavior in online peer communities. We regard the collaboration among Wikipedia editors as a social process influenced by specific communication practices. We analyze and quantify the way Wikipedia editors communicate their feedback and support towards each others’ work in form of sentiments and opinions, and explore to what extent this influences online trust among them. We show that peer content production in Wikipedia is influenced by sharing sentiments during discussions among editors. At the global level, sharing sentiments positively influences the level of online trust. We also find a significant difference in the amount of online trust among editors who share mainly positive or mainly negative sentiments. We further suggest that providing and receiving especially supportive feedback expressed in form of positive sentiments and opinions may be beneficial in terms of virtual teamwork