Are there any scientific papers on the psychology of Q&A communities?

Question

I am reading the "Social Architecture - Building On-line Communities" Pieter Hintjen book. But he is not an academic scientist. Are there any scientific papers about the psychology of Q&A communities, the member motivations, and the reasons for success or failure of such community?

Answer 1

Here are some research articles that may be helpful:

Contributing high quantity and quality knowledge to online Q&A communities [1]

This study looks at the factors that motivate people to contribute knowledge to online Q&A communities. It focuses on both the quantity and quality of contributions and uses self-determination theory to propose that five different motivational factors have different effects on these two aspects of knowledge contribution. The study uses an online survey of 367 participants in a leading Q&A community to test these ideas and finds that rewards in the reputation system, learning, knowledge self-efficacy, and enjoyment of helping are important motivations. Additionally, rewards in the reputation system are more effective in increasing quantity of contributions while intrinsic motivations like knowledge self-efficacy are more strongly related to the quality of contributions.

Users' continued participation behavior in social Q&A communities: A motivation perspective [2]

This study investigates the driving forces behind user retention in online social Q&A communities. A Chinese social Q&A group was the subject of an online study using the theory of planned behavior to examine motivations from psychological, social, and functional angles. The study seeks to provide answers to two research questions: what drives continuing engagement and how do these drives vary among various user types? (lurkers, askers, and answerers). The findings imply that the attitudes of both lurkers and answerers toward continuous engagement are positively influenced by commitment, shared language, and shared vision. The study also discovered that psychological motivations between lurkers and answerers differ significantly, while functional aspects like network externalities have a partial influence on users' perceived usefulness.

You can also research Google Scholar for more related journals.

[1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/asi.22750

[2] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.10.036