Behavioral Mechanisms Prompted by Badges: The Goal-Gradient Hypothesis

This paper describes our research which empirically investigates the applicability of the goal-gradient hypothesis to the activation of user contributions on a popular German Question & Answer community through badges. The goal-gradient hypothesis states that the motivation to reach a goal increases with proximity to the goal. The issue – of interest to academics and website managers alike – is to understand the role played by badges on the quantity and quality of user contributions. Our dataset enables us to measure activity levels both quantitatively and qualitatively. We find that the quantity of user contributions increases substantially in the days shortly before earning the next badge, and peak on the day of the promotion, whereas the quality of user contributions declines only slightly. Hence, our findings empirically support the goal-gradient hypothesis in the context of online communities, and provide nuanced insights into the effect of badges on online user behavior.