Data Mining Reveals How The “Down-Vote” Leads To A Vicious Circle Of Negative Feedback

A classic theory of behavioural psychology predicts that punishment should improve behaviour. But in May, the first study of online voting behaviour in social networks showed exactly the opposite

In the 1930s, the American psychologist Burrhus Skinner popularised the notion of operant conditioning, the notion that an individual’s future behaviour is determined by the punishments and rewards he or she has received in the past. It means that specific patterns of behaviour can be induced by punishing unwanted actions while rewarding those that are desired. And it certainly works with rats and pigeons.

This idea has since become one of the foundations of behavioural psychology and is an important driver of the way online social networks are designed and operate. Many have systems that allow people to like, or up-vote, certain types of content while disliking, or down-voting, others. An up-vote can be thought of as a reward designed to encourage while the down-vote is a punishment designed to discourage.

In theory, this should guide contributors towards producing better content that is more likely to be rewarded. At least, that’s what the theory of operant conditioning predicts.

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