Title
Leadership without Leaders? Starters and Followers in Online Collective Action.
Abstract
The internet has been ascribed a prominent role in collective action, particularly with widespread use of social media. But most mobilisations fail. We investigate the characteristics of those few mobilisations that succeed and hypothesise that the presence of starters' with low thresholds for joining will determine whether a mobilisation achieves success, as suggested by threshold models. We use experimental data from public good games to identify personality types associated with willingness to start in collective action. We find a significant association between both extraversion and internal locus of control, and willingness to start, while agreeableness is associated with a tendency to follow. Rounds without at least a minimum level of extraversion among the participants are unlikely to be funded, providing some support for the hypothesis.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1111/1467-9248.12075
POLITICAL STUDIES
Keywords
DocType
Volume
collective action,leadership,internet,personality,behaviour
Journal
63.0
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
2.0
0032-3217
11
PageRank 
References 
Authors
1.17
4
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Helen Margetts110411.27
Peter John2172.08
Scott A. Hale317418.48
Stéphane Reissfelder4111.85