So we can come up with a hypothesis:
What motivates participation is certain personal gain, whether in the form of credentials, money, or (interestingly) things like improved understanding or "pure enjoyment".
Note that I can "test" my hypothesis on myself: I think I get all of these things out of participating in this project :). I'm certainly also thinking about building the sort of environment I would personally like to use...
It's also possible to look at negative phrasings of the hypothesis: what blocks gain, credentials, making money, improving understanding, or fun/enjoyment?
"A person may dislike doing worse than those around her, but never choose to rectify this because she would feel worse about hurting others. Whether she feels envy or she is happy when others do well would not be observable in choice." [...] BUT! [...] "Preferences often can be revealed by behavior, even when they are not implemented by behavior [...] preferences can better be revealed by acknowledging mistakes." -- Mistakes in Choice-Based Welfare Analysis, by Botond Koszegi and Matthew Rabin
part of Probation Report