In Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), many tasks require exclusive access to a shared resource by a single collaborator. Similarly, in distributed systems, mutual exclusion is required to ensure concurrency in a resource shared among several processes. These resource allocation algorithms can be divided into two genres: token-based and permission-based. To date, few empirical studies have evaluated token-based collaborative behavior in CSCW tasks. We examine four token-based protocols

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... n a task which requires participants to properly order a series of screenshots obtained from ten short films. Using teams of 3, 4, and 5 participants who are collectively incentivized to perform the task as quickly as possible, we evaluate the effects of team size and token based protocol on task completion and participant satisfaction across 600 sessions. Our study determined that task satisfaction was negatively correlated with team size and positively correlated with the perception of "fairness", or lack of potential bias, of each protocol.