Edward Deci
Pay him, and he stops playing
Pay for something a person loved doing, and the love is what you end up buying
"Effects of Externally Mediated Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1971; Deci and Ryan, Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, 1985
Nobody praises me, nobody pays me, and I can't make myself start. When did the drive get swapped out?
What actually happened?
In 1971 Deci published an experiment. College students came in three times, in two groups, to work on a block puzzle called Soma. In the second session one group was paid a dollar for each puzzle solved; the other got nothing. Every session he found a reason to leave the room for eight minutes, with magazines on the table, and those minutes were what he measured. In the third session he told the paid group there was no more money. In the eight free minutes they now spent less time on the puzzles than they had at the start. The unpaid group barely changed.
The reason moved outside
Deci borrowed Richard deCharms's idea of where people feel the cause of their actions sits. Doing something you enjoy, the reason is inside you. Paid by the piece, you start to feel you do it for the money. Stop the money and the inside reason does not come back.
A child who loved drawing enters a few ranked contests and stops drawing at home.
The harm is in the deal struck in advance
In 1973 Mark Lepper and colleagues at Stanford tried it in a nursery school. Children promised a certificate for drawing drew less in free play a week or two later. Children handed the same certificate as a surprise did not.
Finish your homework and you get half an hour of games. Homework has become the price of the games.
Some praise informs, some praise controls
In his own studies, spoken praise did not cut the time people chose to spend on the task; it raised it. Deci and Ryan later said a reward has two faces: one tells you how you did, one steers what you do. Whichever feels heavier decides which way it pushes.
'Your argument is really clear here' tells. 'Do it my way and you did well' steers.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: all your life there were grades, certificates and bonuses, and now nobody hands them out and you don't feel like doing anything.
Ask first: is there any part of this I would do with nobody watching and nobody paying, and when did I last do it that way?
Where it goes wrong: reading it as 'all rewards are bad'. The damage came from pay agreed in advance, per piece. Keep the salary and the feedback; just don't let them become your only reason.
Lines to keep
What you do for the prize stops when the prize does.
The prize is not the harm. The deal made in advance is.
Is that praise telling you something, or steering you?
Same situation, other people are asking
I've said it a hundred times and it still doesn't happen.How much am I supposed to step in?Every single thing I say comes back at me.Saying it again has never once worked.My kid won't listen · all 10 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.