The Psychology of Collective Action, Social Media, and Clay Shirky
I FOUND IT! After years of pondering in the back of my mind, I found an article by Clay Shirky that summarizes what I’ve been seeking for years: From: Larson, Eric M. Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 10:00 AM Subject: Collective Action and "opting out"? Hi, Clay! At last week's AllVoices webinar you mentioned a really interesting concept in passing: That the studies/experiences in the "psychology of collective action" show that that people tend to "opt out" when the participation rates are unknown. In other words, "Gee, I don't know how big a deal this is, so I guess I won't go" -- which would be the flip side of, "Wow! It sounds like that thing is going to be popular; I'd better be there!" (Or maybe, "Gosh, it's going to be a tiny group; I'd better go to help them out"?) Here’s the closest thing I’ve found so far, from later that year…