An outcome of the rising popularity of crowdsourcing contest platforms has been an increase in the number of tasks available on a platform at the same time. These concurrent tasks compete for the attention of the same pool of solvers. There is some evidence that an increase in the number of competing tasks can reduce the number of solvers participating in a focal task. However, it is not clear exactly how competing tasks influence the quality of tasks, as represented by the best solutions they receive. Using data collected from a popular crowdsourcing platform, we investigate the effects of competing tasks and uncover important underlying mechanisms governing the relationship between competing tasks and task quality. Through analyses at the task, solver, and submission levels, we establish that competing tasks can influence task quality in two ways. First, the number of solvers in each task decreases when there are more competing tasks, and this reduction negatively impacts task quality. Second, the availability of a greater number of competing tasks leads to solvers participating in more tasks simultaneously. This multitasking in turn allows solvers to learn from other tasks, generate better solutions, and improve task quality. Interestingly, we find that these opposing forces offset each other, and that the overall solution quality of the focal task is not affected, despite the fact that an increase in the number of competing tasks reduces the number of solvers participating it.

中文翻译：

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竞争任务和任务质量：众包竞赛的实证研究

众包竞赛平台日益普及的一个结果是平台上同时可用的任务数量增加。这些并发任务争夺同一个求解器池的注意力。有一些证据表明，竞争任务数量的增加可以减少参与焦点任务的求解器数量。但是，尚不清楚竞争任务如何影响任务的质量，正如他们收到的最佳解决方案所代表的那样。使用从流行的众包平台收集的数据，我们调查了竞争任务的影响，并揭示了控制竞争任务和任务质量之间关系的重要潜在机制。通过任务、求解器和提交级别的分析，我们确定竞争任务可以通过两种方式影响任务质量。首先，当有更多竞争任务时，每个任务中的求解器数量会减少，这种减少会对任务质量产生负面影响。其次，更多竞争任务的可用性导致求解者同时参与更多任务。这种多任务处理反过来又允许求解者从其他任务中学习，生成更好的解决方案，并提高任务质量。有趣的是，我们发现这些相反的力量相互抵消，并且焦点任务的整体解决方案质量没有受到影响，尽管竞争任务数量的增加会减少参与它的求解器的数量。其次，更多竞争任务的可用性导致求解者同时参与更多任务。这种多任务处理反过来又允许求解者从其他任务中学习，生成更好的解决方案，并提高任务质量。有趣的是，我们发现这些相反的力量相互抵消，并且焦点任务的整体解决方案质量没有受到影响，尽管竞争任务数量的增加会减少参与它的求解器的数量。其次，更多竞争任务的可用性导致求解者同时参与更多任务。这种多任务处理反过来又允许求解者从其他任务中学习，生成更好的解决方案，并提高任务质量。有趣的是，我们发现这些相反的力量相互抵消，并且焦点任务的整体解决方案质量没有受到影响，尽管竞争任务数量的增加会减少参与它的求解器的数量。