motivation.html (12367B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 --> 3 <title>Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 4 5 <!--#include virtual="/server/gnun/initial-translations-list.html" --> 6 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 7 8 <h2>Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator</h2> 9 10 <h3>Creativity and intrinsic interest diminish if task is done for gain</h3> 11 12 <p> 13 by <strong>Alfie Kohn</strong> 14 <br /> 15 Special to the Boston Globe 16 <br /> 17 [Reprinted with permission of the author from the Monday 19 January 18 1987 Boston Globe.]</p> 19 20 <p> 21 In the laboratory, rats get Rice Krispies. In the classroom the top 22 students get A's, and in the factory or office the best workers get 23 raises. It's an article of faith for most of us that rewards promote 24 better performance.</p> 25 26 <p> 27 But a growing body of research suggests that this law is not nearly as 28 ironclad as was once thought. Psychologists have been finding that 29 rewards can lower performance levels, especially when the performance 30 involves creativity.</p> 31 32 <p> 33 A related series of studies shows that intrinsic interest in a task—the sense that something is worth doing for its own sake—typically declines when someone is rewarded for doing it.</p> 34 35 <p> 36 If a reward—money, awards, praise, or winning a contest—comes to be seen as the reason one is engaging in an activity, 37 that activity will be viewed as less enjoyable in its own right.</p> 38 39 <p> 40 With the exception of some behaviorists who doubt the very existence 41 of intrinsic motivation, these conclusions are now widely accepted 42 among psychologists. Taken together, they suggest we may unwittingly 43 be squelching interest and discouraging innovation among workers, 44 students and artists.</p> 45 46 <p> 47 The recognition that rewards can have counter-productive effects is 48 based on a variety of studies, which have come up with such findings 49 as these: Young children who are rewarded for drawing are less likely 50 to draw on their own that are children who draw just for the fun of 51 it. Teenagers offered rewards for playing word games enjoy the games 52 less and do not do as well as those who play with no rewards. 53 Employees who are praised for meeting a manager's expectations suffer 54 a drop in motivation.</p> 55 56 <p> 57 Much of the research on creativity and motivation has been performed 58 by Theresa Amabile, associate professor of psychology at Brandeis 59 University. In a paper published early last year on her most recent 60 study, she reported on experiments involving elementary school and 61 college students. Both groups were asked to make “silly” 62 collages. The young children were also asked to invent stories.</p> 63 64 <p> 65 The least-creative projects, as rated by several teachers, were done 66 by those students who had contracted for rewards. “It may be 67 that commissioned work will, in general, be less creative than work 68 that is done out of pure interest,” Amabile said.</p> 69 70 <p> 71 In 1985, Amabile asked 72 creative writers at Brandeis and at Boston 72 University to write poetry. Some students then were given a list of 73 extrinsic (external) reasons for writing, such as impressing teachers, 74 making money and getting into graduate school, and were asked to think 75 about their own writing with respect to these reasons. Others were 76 given a list of intrinsic reasons: the enjoyment of playing with 77 words, satisfaction from self-expression, and so forth. A third group 78 was not given any list. All were then asked to do more writing.</p> 79 80 <p> 81 The results were clear. Students given the extrinsic reasons not only 82 wrote less creatively than the others, as judged by 12 independent 83 poets, but the quality of their work dropped significantly. Rewards, 84 Amabile says, have this destructive effect primarily with creative 85 tasks, including higher-level problem-solving. “The more 86 complex the activity, the more it's hurt by extrinsic reward,” 87 she said.</p> 88 89 <p> 90 But other research shows that artists are by no means the only ones 91 affected.</p> 92 93 <p> 94 In one study, girls in the fifth and sixth grades tutored younger 95 children much less effectively if they were promised free movie 96 tickets for teaching well. The study, by James Gabarino, now 97 president of Chicago's Erikson Institute for Advanced Studies in Child 98 Development, showed that tutors working for the reward took longer to 99 communicate ideas, got frustrated more easily, and did a poorer job in 100 the end than those who were not rewarded.</p> 101 102 <p> 103 Such findings call into question the widespread belief that money is 104 an effective and even necessary way to motivate people. They also 105 challenge the behaviorist assumption that any activity is more likely 106 to occur if it is rewarded. Amabile says her research 107 “definitely refutes the notion that creativity can be operantly 108 conditioned.”</p> 109 110 <p> 111 But Kenneth McGraw, associate professor of psychology at the 112 University of Mississippi, cautions that this does not mean 113 behaviorism itself has been invalidated. “The basic principles 114 of reinforcement and rewards certainly work, but in a restricted 115 context” —restricted, that is, to tasks that are not 116 especially interesting.</p> 117 118 <p> 119 Researchers offer several explanations for their surprising findings 120 about rewards and performance.</p> 121 122 <p> 123 First, rewards encourage people to focus narrowly on a task, to do it 124 as quickly as possible and to take few risks. “If they feel 125 that ‘this is something I have to get through to get the 126 prize,’ they're going to be less creative,” Amabile 127 said.</p> 128 129 <p> 130 Second, people come to see themselves as being controlled by the 131 reward. They feel less autonomous, and this may interfere with 132 performance. “To the extent one's experience of being 133 self-determined is limited,” said Richard Ryan, associate 134 psychology professor at the University of Rochester, “one's 135 creativity will be reduced as well.”</p> 136 137 <p> 138 Finally, extrinsic rewards can erode intrinsic interest. People who 139 see themselves as working for money, approval or competitive success 140 find their tasks less pleasurable, and therefore do not do them as 141 well.</p> 142 143 <p> 144 The last explanation reflects 15 years of work by Ryan's mentor at the 145 University of Rochester, Edward Deci. In 1971, Deci showed that 146 “money may work to buy off one's intrinsic motivation for an 147 activity” on a long-term basis. Ten years later, Deci and his 148 colleagues demonstrated that trying to best others has the same 149 effect. Students who competed to solve a puzzle quickly were less 150 likely than those who were not competing to keep working at it once 151 the experiment was over.</p> 152 153 <h3 id="sec1">Control plays role</h3> 154 155 <p> 156 There is general agreement, however, that not all rewards have the 157 same effect. Offering a flat fee for participating in an experiment— similar to an hourly wage in the workplace—usually 158 does not reduce intrinsic motivation. It is only when the rewards are 159 based on performing a given task or doing a good job at it—analogous to piece-rate payment and bonuses, respectively—that 160 the problem develops.</p> 161 162 <p> 163 The key, then, lies in how a reward is experienced. If we come to 164 view ourselves as working to get something, we will no longer find 165 that activity worth doing in its own right.</p> 166 167 <p> 168 There is an old joke that nicely illustrates the principle. An 169 elderly man, harassed by the taunts of neighborhood children, finally 170 devises a scheme. He offered to pay each child a dollar if they would 171 all return Tuesday and yell their insults again. They did so eagerly 172 and received the money, but he told them he could only pay 25 cents on 173 Wednesday. When they returned, insulted him again and collected their 174 quarters, he informed them that Thursday's rate would be just a penny. 175 “Forget it,” they said —and never taunted him 176 again.</p> 177 178 <h3 id="sec2">Means to an end</h3> 179 180 <p> 181 In a 1982 study, Stanford psychologist Mark L. Lepper showed that any 182 task, no matter how enjoyable it once seemed, would be devalued if it 183 were presented as a means rather than an end. He told a group of 184 preschoolers they could not engage in one activity they liked until 185 they first took part in another. Although they had enjoyed both 186 activities equally, the children came to dislike the task that was a 187 prerequisite for the other.</p> 188 189 <p> 190 It should not be surprising that when verbal feedback is experienced 191 as controlling, the effect on motivation can be similar to that of 192 payment. In a study of corporate employees, Ryan found that those who 193 were told, “Good, you're doing as you <em>should</em>” 194 were “significantly less intrinsically motivated than those who 195 received feedback informationally.”</p> 196 197 <p> 198 There's a difference, Ryan says, between saying, “I'm giving you 199 this reward because I recognize the value of your work” and 200 “You're getting this reward because you've lived up to my 201 standards.”</p> 202 203 <p> 204 A different but related set of problems exists in the case of 205 creativity. Artists must make a living, of course, but Amabile 206 emphasizes that “the negative impact on creativity of working 207 for rewards can be minimized” by playing down the significance 208 of these rewards and trying not to use them in a controlling way. 209 Creative work, the research suggests, cannot be forced, but only 210 allowed to happen.</p> 211 212 <hr /> 213 214 <p><em>Alfie Kohn, a Cambridge, MA writer, is the author of “No 215 Contest: The Case Against Competition,” published by Houghton 216 Mifflin Co., Boston, MA. ISBN 0-395-39387-6. For more information on 217 this topic, see the author's website (www.alfiekohn.org) and his book 218 PUNISHED BY REWARDS (rev. ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1999).</em></p> 219 220 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 221 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 222 <div id="footer"> 223 <div class="unprintable"> 224 225 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 226 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 227 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 228 the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent 229 to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 230 231 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 232 replace it with the translation of these two: 233 234 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 235 translations. 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For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 256 document was modified, or published. 257 258 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 259 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 260 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 261 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 262 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 263 264 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 265 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 266 267 <p>Copyright © 1987 Alfie Kohn.</p> 268 269 <p>Verbatim copying and distribution is permitted in any medium 270 provided this notice is preserved.</p> 271 272 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 273 274 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 275 <!-- timestamp start --> 276 $Date: 2014/04/12 12:40:27 $ 277 <!-- timestamp end --> 278 </p> 279 </div> 280 </div> 281 </body> 282 </html>