The Social Overload Thesis Revisited: Exploring the Mechanisms of Size-Dependent Participation Behavior in Voluntary Communities
Sociological and urban studies have consistently reported that human behavior exhibits a discernible correlation with population size, following a power-law function. Individuals residing in larger communities exhibit significantly higher levels of activity in contrast to their counterparts in small...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Socius |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231231209140 |
| _version_ | 1827677158767591424 |
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| author | Yongren Shi Qianyi Shi |
| author_facet | Yongren Shi Qianyi Shi |
| author_sort | Yongren Shi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Sociological and urban studies have consistently reported that human behavior exhibits a discernible correlation with population size, following a power-law function. Individuals residing in larger communities exhibit significantly higher levels of activity in contrast to their counterparts in smaller communities. However, the underlying processes responsible for such behavioral patterns remain unclear. The authors propose that organizational crowding tends to generate competitive pressure that results in social overload for individuals, who in turn divide time and energy among many groups while reducing the time spent in each. The social overload thesis predicts integration, rather than mutual exclusion of groups, when experiencing competition. A large-scale event participation dataset from 11 major U.S. technology clusters over a period of 10 years is used to test these hypotheses. The results support the mediating role of competition in the relationship between population size and participation intensity. The authors demonstrate the impact of competition on network structure. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T05:40:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4d2b66de6003440eba8efd3021e4e767 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2378-0231 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T05:40:10Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Socius |
| spelling | doaj.art-4d2b66de6003440eba8efd3021e4e7672023-11-22T22:35:03ZengSAGE PublishingSocius2378-02312023-11-01910.1177/23780231231209140The Social Overload Thesis Revisited: Exploring the Mechanisms of Size-Dependent Participation Behavior in Voluntary CommunitiesYongren Shi0Qianyi Shi1University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USAIowa City VA Health Care System, Iowa City, IA, USASociological and urban studies have consistently reported that human behavior exhibits a discernible correlation with population size, following a power-law function. Individuals residing in larger communities exhibit significantly higher levels of activity in contrast to their counterparts in smaller communities. However, the underlying processes responsible for such behavioral patterns remain unclear. The authors propose that organizational crowding tends to generate competitive pressure that results in social overload for individuals, who in turn divide time and energy among many groups while reducing the time spent in each. The social overload thesis predicts integration, rather than mutual exclusion of groups, when experiencing competition. A large-scale event participation dataset from 11 major U.S. technology clusters over a period of 10 years is used to test these hypotheses. The results support the mediating role of competition in the relationship between population size and participation intensity. The authors demonstrate the impact of competition on network structure.https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231231209140 |
| spellingShingle | Yongren Shi Qianyi Shi The Social Overload Thesis Revisited: Exploring the Mechanisms of Size-Dependent Participation Behavior in Voluntary Communities Socius |
| title | The Social Overload Thesis Revisited: Exploring the Mechanisms of Size-Dependent Participation Behavior in Voluntary Communities |
| title_full | The Social Overload Thesis Revisited: Exploring the Mechanisms of Size-Dependent Participation Behavior in Voluntary Communities |
| title_fullStr | The Social Overload Thesis Revisited: Exploring the Mechanisms of Size-Dependent Participation Behavior in Voluntary Communities |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Social Overload Thesis Revisited: Exploring the Mechanisms of Size-Dependent Participation Behavior in Voluntary Communities |
| title_short | The Social Overload Thesis Revisited: Exploring the Mechanisms of Size-Dependent Participation Behavior in Voluntary Communities |
| title_sort | social overload thesis revisited exploring the mechanisms of size dependent participation behavior in voluntary communities |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231231209140 |
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