Donating Context Data to Science: The Effects of Social Signals and Perceptions on Action-Taking

It is becoming increasingly easy for researchers to develop context-aware applications for smart- phones. A perennial challenge, however, is to convince a large number of people to install them and donate contextual data for scientific purposes. Our empirical study seeks to address this chal- lenge by investigating how people's perception and attitude affect their willingness to donate con- text data to researchers and quantifies the effects of social signals on donation action-taking. Our findings indicate that the perceived need for donation and perceived organization reputation are key determinants in deciding whether to donate: people with altruistic personality do not necessarily donate if they cannot see the need to take an action. Furthermore, we provide evidence that even if people indicate a willingness to donate, they are hesitant to take action towards donating data unless catalysts like social signals (hints about the actions of others) are present.