In recent years, online petitions have emerged as a popular way of getting large amounts of people involved in an issue. Ideally, petitions are supposed to represent the attitudes of the people who sign them and, with enough signatures, can serve as a pressure tactic to convince governments, private companies, or even individuals to change or stop actions that may harm animals. Websites such as Care2 and Change.org are built on the strength of online petitions.

In this study, researchers wanted “to specify and quantify the core mechanisms of petition diffusion online.” They used an anonymous dataset to prepare a case study using system dynamics modeling and then tried to determine the diffusion rate of a given petition and identify what elements pushed the petition forward and increased participation.

Because of the relatively small size of the petition (just under 5,000 signatures), the researchers were able to gather a wide range of specific information describing how the petition was spread on social media and by word of mouth. What researchers found was that there was a difference between “push” processes (such as sending out announcements) vs. “pull” processes (such as having others share the petition on social media). They found that the “spread is largely a pull process rather than a push process.” They observed that “even if everybody is reached by announcements — which is practically impossible — it might not be as effective as small increases in the proportion of people who share” a petition on social media. They found that “interventions to increase the fraction of people who share information” was more effective and practical than putting energy into more announcements. They also noted the crucial aspect of targeting a petition to an agreeable population of people who will want to sign it.

The study, while not focused on animal advocacy petitions in particular, has a wealth of information for making petitions in general more effective. Animal advocates involved in petitions can glean a great deal of strategic knowledge from this paper.