A thimbs up when due??

Question

When someone answers a question after another one that said the EXACT same thing,why are people so selfish not to give a person a thimbs up?? I always do.

Answer 1

Some people just agree and repeat.

Answer 2

They don't know how the timing occurred, so they may think that the second answerer just copied the first one.  I've seen that happen, especially with short, factual answers.  When someone asks what the capital of Montana is, they might get 15 answers of "Helena."  I guess they want to reward the first answerer for being both correct AND quick.  It's possible that all 15 people answered concurrently, and their replies only got posted a few seconds apart, but there's no way to be certain of that after the question has already been listed for a few minutes.

When I'm feeling generous, I'll go through and give thumbs up to ALL correct answers, but sometimes I'm lazy and only give it to the first one or the first five or ten or whatever my mood dictates.  It still strikes me as a little weird when a few days pass, and someone can clearly see all the other answers, but they still take the time to add their own "Helena" to the list.

One time, I gave an opinion-based answer to a question that was a sentence about twenty words long, and a good five minutes passed before another person posted the exact same sentence that I posted, verbatim.  What's up with that?

Answer 3

........they thought the 2nd person is a copycat