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Understanding Content Voting Based on Social Foraging Theory

Why do people want to vote for or against content at some online communities and not at others? Social foraging theory, particularly research on insect and other animal information sharing behavior, offers a new perspective. Borrowing concepts from social foraging theory, this study proposes that four factors drive people's intention to vote online content (positively or negatively): 1) altruistic motives; 2) identification with the community; 3) information quality; and 4) knowledge self-efficacy. The research model was tested in a survey of online news communities. It found that positive voting intention was predicted by altruistic motives, community identification, and knowledge self-efficacy. Information quality is important for positive voting, but it works indirectly through fostering stronger community identification. Negative voting intention was predicted by altruistic motives and information quality. Prior research has applied foraging theory to individuals acting alone, e.g., when an individual uses Google to search for information online. This study expands the application of foraging theory to the community context where individuals provide votes to influence others in their chosen community. The findings advance our knowledge about content voting and provide implications for practitioners of voting systems.