How Task Perceptions Matter on Micro-Task Crowdsourcing Platforms

Though a large percentage of micro-task crowdsourcing workers have a college degree and report a household income above the national median, they persistently return to crowdsourcing platforms, despite the low pay and relative simplicity of the tasks. In this study, we aim to understand why prior research has identified task-related factors to be important determinants of worker behavior on micro-task crowdsourcing platforms. We explore workers' perceptions of task characteristics and their impact on subjective and objective outputs in micro-task crowdsourcing contexts, taking into account the unique nature of crowdsourcing platforms as a new IT artifact. We draw on two theories, the theory of motivation through work design and the expectancy theory, and aim to extend them by incorporating the IT artifact in them, in the context of micro-task crowdsourcing. Our findings help understand workers' behaviors on micro-task crowdsourcing platforms and thus inform the task and platform design process