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ANN ARBOR — Generosity may be its own reward, but how often does a generous act result in more generous behavior down the road? What makes people pay it forward? A look into the world of online streaming may offer some answers.

In The Spread of Virtual Gifting in Live Streaming: The Case of Twitch, University of Michigan researcher Ji Eun Kim investigated the patterns and practices of giving gifts on the video streaming platform Twitch.

“Twitch viewers can give virtual gifts to others in the chat room,” she said. “Our study shows that recipients of gifts are more likely to give to others compared to non-recipients. That’s interesting on its own, but I think the most exciting part is that the likelihood of paying it forward depends on the type of gift they receive.”

In Kim’s research, she identified significant differences in who gives gifts and the effects those gifts create. Twitch automatically displays information about gift givers — unless they choose to remain anonymous. That anonymity typically does not result in more gifts being given.

“We found that while receiving any gift raises the baseline for giving, receiving one from an anonymous gifter provided no additional boost. It did not further increase the likelihood of paying it forward,” Kim said.

Gift recipients who received gifts from named individuals, however, did tend to later give more gifts themselves, especially when they were the sole beneficiary of a gifting event, rather than one of several people receiving gifts at the same time. Kim hypothesized that’s because being singled out makes the gift feel more personal and special than receiving a gift as part of a batch. That personal connection may make the recipient more grateful than they otherwise would have been.

The social status of the giver, both real and perceived, may also play a role in how often recipients pay it forward. Kim labeled givers by their gifting history: the top 20% of gift givers who had given the most gifts historically were labeled as “high status” within the study, while the bottom 20% were “low status.” Only high status gifters moved the needle, though not in the way you might expect.

“Gifts from low status givers had no effect,” Kim said, “but gifts from high status gifters actually reduced the likelihood of paying it forward.”

Kim likened the effect to kinds of charitable giving. A $10,000 donation from a wealthy celebrity carries a different connotation than the same donation coming from someone in your neighborhood. When the gift is perceived as a trivial expense to a super-giver, it can diminish the recipient’s sense of gratitude. Recipients may also assume that the super-giver will continue to give to the community and thus feel less compelled to do so themselves. The same chilling effect, she believes, may be present in other online communities.

“We might observe similar patterns in other settings like Wikipedia. For example, newly joined editors might feel discouraged to edit an article if they see the experienced editors are already working on the same article,” Kim said. “I want to think about how to mitigate such negative side effects and encourage more participation and engagement from newcomers and low status users.”

The full paper, The Spread of Virtual Gifting in Live Streaming: The Case of Twitch, is available online via arXiv, and will be presented at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM) this coming May.

Contact: Jon Meerdink ([email protected])