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. 2014 Oct 6;11(99):20140532.
doi: 10.1098/rsif.2014.0532.

Crowdsourcing contest dilemma

Victor Naroditskiy  1 , Nicholas R Jennings  2 , Pascal Van Hentenryck  3 , Manuel Cebrian  3
Affiliations

Crowdsourcing contest dilemma

Victor Naroditskiy et al. J R Soc Interface. .

Abstract

Crowdsourcing offers unprecedented potential for solving tasks efficiently by tapping into the skills of large groups of people. A salient feature of crowdsourcing--its openness of entry--makes it vulnerable to malicious behaviour. Such behaviour took place in a number of recent popular crowdsourcing competitions. We provide game-theoretic analysis of a fundamental trade-off between the potential for increased productivity and the possibility of being set back by malicious behaviour. Our results show that in crowdsourcing competitions malicious behaviour is the norm, not the anomaly--a result contrary to the conventional wisdom in the area. Counterintuitively, making the attacks more costly does not deter them but leads to a less desirable outcome. These findings have cautionary implications for the design of crowdsourcing competitions.

Keywords: Prisoner's Dilemma; crowdsourcing; game theory.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Equilibrium strategies in the second-stage game when both players crowdsource and p1 − d < p2. (Online version in colour.)
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Equilibrium strategies. (Online version in colour.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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