[Paper Review] A Cross-Country Comparison of Crowdworker Motivations

Lisa Posch, Arnim Bleier+2 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Nov 8, 2017

Mobile Crowdsensing and Crowdsourcing6 references3 citations

TL;DR

This study introduces the Multidimensional Crowdworker Motivation Scale (MCMS), a validated 6-factor instrument grounded in Self-Determination Theory, to measure micro-task worker motivations across ten countries on the CrowdFlower platform. It reveals significant cross-national differences, with workers from lower-income countries showing higher intrinsic and extrinsic motivation but lower amotivation than U.S. workers, while social and guilt-based motivations are stronger globally outside the U.S.

ABSTRACT

Crowd employment is a new form of short term employment that has been rapidly becoming a source of income for a vast number of people around the globe. It differs considerably from more traditional forms of work, yet similar ethical and optimization issues arise. One key to tackle such challenges is to understand what motivates the international crowd workforce. In this work, we study the motivation of workers involved in one particularly prevalent type of crowd employment: micro-tasks. We report on the results of applying the Multidimensional Crowdworker Motivation Scale (MCMS) in ten countries, which unveil significant international differences.

Motivation & Objective

• To understand the motivations driving micro-task participation among international crowdworkers beyond the dominant U.S. and Indian populations on platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk.
• To develop and validate a culturally robust, multidimensional scale for measuring crowdworker motivations across diverse national contexts.
• To investigate how motivational factors such as intrinsic, extrinsic, and introjected regulation vary across countries, particularly in relation to income levels and cultural norms.
• To enable future research and platform design by providing a reliable, cross-culturally invariant measurement tool for crowdworker motivation.

Proposed method

• Developed the Multidimensional Crowdworker Motivation Scale (MCMS) based on Self-Determination Theory, incorporating six motivation types: amotivation, material external regulation, social external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and intrinsic motivation.
• Adapted the stem question to capture both actual and latent motivations: "Why do you or would you put efforts into doing CrowdFlower tasks?".
• Collected survey data from 10 countries (USA, Spain, Germany, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Venezuela), with sample sizes between 401 and 722 after spam removal.
• Validated the MCMS using confirmatory factor analysis on both the total sample and individual country samples, achieving good model fit (CFI: 0.931–0.975; RMSEA: 0.038–0.056; SRMR: 0.037–0.050).
• Conducted measurement invariance tests to confirm configural, full metric, and partial scalar invariance, enabling valid cross-country comparisons.
• Used latent mean estimation to compare motivational constructs across countries, with the U.S. as the reference group.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How do micro-task crowdworker motivations differ across countries, particularly in relation to income levels and cultural contexts?
• RQ2 To what extent is the Multidimensional Crowdworker Motivation Scale (MCMS) measurement invariant across diverse national samples, enabling reliable cross-country comparisons?
• RQ3 Which motivational factors—such as intrinsic, extrinsic, or guilt-based regulation—are most influential among crowdworkers in different countries compared to the U.S. reference group?
• RQ4 How do material rewards, social expectations, and personal goal alignment shape participation in micro-task platforms globally?

Key findings

• U.S. crowdworkers were most motivated by material external regulation (mean = 5.86) and intrinsic motivation (mean = 5.28), indicating a dual drive from monetary rewards and task enjoyment.
• Workers from Brazil, Mexico, India, the Philippines, and Venezuela showed significantly lower amotivation than U.S. workers, suggesting higher engagement despite lower national income levels.
• All countries except Germany reported significantly higher material external regulation than the U.S., indicating stronger motivation through monetary rewards globally.
• Social external regulation and introjected regulation were significantly higher in all countries except the U.S., showing greater influence of social rewards and guilt avoidance in non-U.S. workers.
• Identified regulation was significantly higher in all countries except Germany, suggesting that micro-task work is more aligned with personal goals for most international workers.
• All countries except Spain and Germany reported significantly higher intrinsic motivation than U.S. workers, indicating that enjoyment and interest in tasks are stronger motivators outside the U.S.