Beyond Words: An Experimental Study of Signaling in Crowdfunding
Name
3716381.pdf
Size
16.37 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
d276906fde67c7893077fa97556a1d7f
Author(s)
Dambanemuya, Henry
Choi, Eunseo
Gergle, Darren
Horv?t, Em?ke-?gnes
Date Issued
June 14, 2025
Journal
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Citation
Henry K. Dambanemuya, Eunseo Choi, Darren Gergle, and Emőke-Ágnes Horvát. 2025. Beyond Words: An Experimental Study of Signaling in Crowdfunding. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 32, 3, Article 29 (June 2025), 34 pages.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Increasingly, crowdfunding is transforming financing for many people worldwide. Yet we know relatively little about how, why, and when funding outcomes are impacted by signaling between funders. We conduct two studies of N=500 and N=750 participants involved in crowdfunding to investigate the effect of crowd signals, i.e., certain characteristics deduced from the amounts and timing of contributions, on the decision to fund. In our first study, we find that, under a variety of conditions, contributions of heterogeneous amounts arriving at varying time intervals are significantly more likely to be selected than homogeneous contribution amounts and times. The impact of signaling is strongest among participants who are susceptible to social influence. The effect is remarkably general across different project types, fundraising goals, participant interest in the projects, and participants' altruistic attitudes. Our second study using less strict controls indicates that the role of crowd signals in decision-making is typically unrecognized by participants. Our results underscore the fundamental nature of social signaling in crowdfunding. They highlight the importance of designing around these crowd signals and inform user strategies both on the project creator and funder side.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3716381
