Crowdsourcing involves getting required ideas, content and services by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, most often belonging to online communities. A new study found that malicious behavior is common in such competitions.
"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 behavior. Such behavior took place in a number of recent popular crowdsourcing competitions," the study authors said.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Southampton and the National Information and Communications Technology Australia (NICTA). They used the "Prisoner's Dilemma" scenario to analyze several such processes. This scenario looks into why two "rational" individuals might not cooperate, even when cooperation works to the best interest of both parties involved. The study authors observed malicious behavior in many popular crowdsourcing competitions.
"Everyone from the 'crowd' can contribute to solving the task. This is exactly what makes crowdsourcing so powerful for solving tasks that are all but impossible for a closed group of individuals or an organization," co-author Dr. Victor Naroditskiy from the University of Southampton said in a press statement. "At the same time, the openness makes crowdsourcing solutions vulnerable to malicious behavior of other interested parties. Malicious behavior can take many forms, ranging from sabotaging problem progress to submitting misinformation. This comes to the front in crowdsourcing contests where a single winner takes the prize."
The researchers said that these findings can help design crowdsourcing competitions. They may also be useful for firms that consider using crowdsourcing to solve a task.
Findings of the study were published online in the Journal of Royal Society Interface.
