Is there access to the full dissertation (i.e., not just the description/abstract)?
For those interested, the key statement in this study: Using an experiment, message board influence on an investment decision and attitude was tested. The results indicated that individuals that received negative message board postings did have a significantly higher change in investment amount as compared to a control group that did not receive any message postings. The positive message board group and the control group were not significantly different in their amount of investment change.
The methodology of the experiment isn't detailed in the description. But it seems that one major difference between this study and the study in the OP article is the action taken by the user: change in monetary investment, and upvote/downvote. People behave differently when their personal money's on the line, so this is an important difference. So I'm very curious as to how this study ran its experiment.
For those interested, the key statement in this study: Using an experiment, message board influence on an investment decision and attitude was tested. The results indicated that individuals that received negative message board postings did have a significantly higher change in investment amount as compared to a control group that did not receive any message postings. The positive message board group and the control group were not significantly different in their amount of investment change.
The methodology of the experiment isn't detailed in the description. But it seems that one major difference between this study and the study in the OP article is the action taken by the user: change in monetary investment, and upvote/downvote. People behave differently when their personal money's on the line, so this is an important difference. So I'm very curious as to how this study ran its experiment.