Leadership without Leaders? Starters and Followers in Online Collective Action

TL;DR

This study explores how personality traits influence the success of online collective actions, highlighting the roles of 'starters' and 'followers' in mobilization outcomes through experimental data.

Contribution

It identifies specific personality traits linked to initiating or following in collective action, providing empirical evidence for threshold models of mobilization success.

Findings

Extraversion and internal locus of control are linked to willingness to start.

Agreeableness correlates with tendency to follow.

Rounds lacking extraverted participants are less likely to succeed.

Abstract

The Internet has been ascribed a prominent role in collective action, particularly with widespread use of social media. But most mobilisations fail. We investigate the characteristics of those few mobilisations that succeed and hypothesise that the presence of 'starters' with low thresholds for joining will determine whether a mobilisation achieves success, as suggested by threshold models. We use experimental data from public good games to identify personality types associated with willingness to start in collective action. We find a significant association between both extraversion and internal locus of control, and willingness to start, while agreeableness is associated with a tendency to follow. Rounds without at least a minimum level of extraversion among the participants are unlikely to be funded, providing some support for the hypothesis.