A “Dear Economist” correspondent once asked me why people post clips of classic comedies on YouTube, or go to the trouble of writing online reviews, given that there seems to be nothing in it for them. A textbook economics model would say that people would not, in fact, post online reviews or contribute to YouTube. And my answer, in brief, was that they don’t. Far more people read books than write reviews of them, and far more watch YouTube videos than post them. As a broad defence of rational economic man, my answer wasn’t too bad; but as a way of understanding online volunteering, it was useless.
《亲爱的manbetx20客户端下载 学家》的一位读者曾经写信问我，为什么看上去无利可图，还会有人在YouTube上发布经典的搞笑视频，或者费心在网上撰写评论？按照教科书上的manbetx20客户端下载 学模型，人们不应该在网上撰写评论或者在YouTube上发布视频。简单地说，我的答案是他们并没有这样做。读书的人远远多于写评论的人，看视频的人也远远多于上传视频的人。作为对理性manbetx20客户端下载 人的宽泛辩护，我的答案还算不错，可惜对于理解在线志愿行为并没有帮助。