|
428
|
1 STUDIES FIND REWARD OFTEN NO MOTIVATOR
|
|
|
2
|
|
|
3 Creativity and intrinsic interest diminish if task is done for gain
|
|
|
4
|
|
|
5 By Alfie Kohn
|
|
|
6 Special to the Boston Globe
|
|
|
7 [reprinted with permission of the author
|
|
|
8 from the Monday 19 January 1987 Boston Globe]
|
|
|
9
|
|
|
10 In the laboratory, rats get Rice Krispies. In the classroom the top
|
|
|
11 students get A's, and in the factory or office the best workers get
|
|
|
12 raises. It's an article of faith for most of us that rewards promote
|
|
|
13 better performance.
|
|
|
14
|
|
|
15 But a growing body of research suggests that this law is not nearly as
|
|
|
16 ironclad as was once thought. Psychologists have been finding that
|
|
|
17 rewards can lower performance levels, especially when the performance
|
|
|
18 involves creativity.
|
|
|
19
|
|
|
20 A related series of studies shows that intrinsic interest in a task -
|
|
|
21 the sense that something is worth doing for its own sake - typically
|
|
|
22 declines when someone is rewarded for doing it.
|
|
|
23
|
|
|
24 If a reward - money, awards, praise, or winning a contest - comes to
|
|
|
25 be seen as the reason one is engaging in an activity, that activity
|
|
|
26 will be viewed as less enjoyable in its own right.
|
|
|
27
|
|
|
28 With the exception of some behaviorists who doubt the very existence
|
|
|
29 of intrinsic motivation, these conclusions are now widely accepted
|
|
|
30 among psychologists. Taken together, they suggest we may unwittingly
|
|
|
31 be squelching interest and discouraging innovation among workers,
|
|
|
32 students and artists.
|
|
|
33
|
|
|
34 The recognition that rewards can have counter-productive effects is
|
|
|
35 based on a variety of studies, which have come up with such findings
|
|
|
36 as these: Young children who are rewarded for drawing are less likely
|
|
|
37 to draw on their own that are children who draw just for the fun of
|
|
|
38 it. Teenagers offered rewards for playing word games enjoy the games
|
|
|
39 less and do not do as well as those who play with no rewards.
|
|
|
40 Employees who are praised for meeting a manager's expectations suffer
|
|
|
41 a drop in motivation.
|
|
|
42
|
|
|
43 Much of the research on creativity and motivation has been performed
|
|
|
44 by Theresa Amabile, associate professor of psychology at Brandeis
|
|
|
45 University. In a paper published early last year on her most recent
|
|
|
46 study, she reported on experiments involving elementary school and
|
|
|
47 college students. Both groups were asked to make "silly" collages.
|
|
|
48 The young children were also asked to invent stories.
|
|
|
49
|
|
|
50 The least-creative projects, as rated by several teachers, were done
|
|
|
51 by those students who had contracted for rewards. "It may be that
|
|
|
52 commissioned work will, in general, be less creative than work that is
|
|
|
53 done out of pure interest," Amabile said.
|
|
|
54
|
|
|
55 In 1985, Amabile asked 72 creative writers at Brandeis and at Boston
|
|
|
56 University to write poetry. Some students then were given a list of
|
|
|
57 extrinsic (external) reasons for writing, such as impressing teachers,
|
|
|
58 making money and getting into graduate school, and were asked to think
|
|
|
59 about their own writing with respect to these reasons. Others were
|
|
|
60 given a list of intrinsic reasons: the enjoyment of playing with
|
|
|
61 words, satisfaction from self-expression, and so forth. A third group
|
|
|
62 was not given any list. All were then asked to do more writing.
|
|
|
63
|
|
|
64 The results were clear. Students given the extrinsic reasons not only
|
|
|
65 wrote less creatively than the others, as judged by 12 independent
|
|
|
66 poets, but the quality of their work dropped significantly. Rewards,
|
|
|
67 Amabile says, have this destructive effect primarily with creative
|
|
|
68 tasks, including higher-level problem-solving. "The more complex the
|
|
|
69 activity, the more it's hurt by extrinsic reward," she said.
|
|
|
70
|
|
|
71 But other research shows that artists are by no means the only ones
|
|
|
72 affected.
|
|
|
73
|
|
|
74 In one study, girls in the fifth and sixth grades tutored younger
|
|
|
75 children much less effectively if they were promised free movie
|
|
|
76 tickets for teaching well. The study, by James Gabarino, now
|
|
|
77 president of Chicago's Erikson Institute for Advanced Studies in Child
|
|
|
78 Development, showed that tutors working for the reward took longer to
|
|
|
79 communicate ideas, got frustrated more easily, and did a poorer job in
|
|
|
80 the end than those who were not rewarded.
|
|
|
81
|
|
|
82 Such findings call into question the widespread belief that money is
|
|
|
83 an effective and even necessary way to motivate people. They also
|
|
|
84 challenge the behaviorist assumption that any activity is more likely
|
|
|
85 to occur if it is rewarded. Amabile says her research "definitely
|
|
|
86 refutes the notion that creativity can be operantly conditioned."
|
|
|
87
|
|
|
88 But Kenneth McGraw, associate professor of psychology at the
|
|
|
89 University of Mississippi, cautions that this does not mean
|
|
|
90 behaviorism itself has been invalidated. "The basic principles of
|
|
|
91 reinforcement and rewards certainly work, but in a restricted context"
|
|
|
92 - restricted, that is, to tasks that are not especially interesting.
|
|
|
93
|
|
|
94 Researchers offer several explanations for their surprising findings
|
|
|
95 about rewards and performance.
|
|
|
96
|
|
|
97 First, rewards encourage people to focus narrowly on a task, to do it
|
|
|
98 as quickly as possible and to take few risks. "If they feel that
|
|
|
99 'this is something I have to get through to get the prize,' they're
|
|
|
100 going to be less creative," Amabile said.
|
|
|
101
|
|
|
102 Second, people come to see themselves as being controlled by the
|
|
|
103 reward. They feel less autonomous, and this may interfere with
|
|
|
104 performance. "To the extent one's experience of being
|
|
|
105 self-determined is limited," said Richard Ryan, associate psychology
|
|
|
106 professor at the University of Rochester, "one's creativity will be
|
|
|
107 reduced as well."
|
|
|
108
|
|
|
109 Finally, extrinsic rewards can erode intrinsic interest. People who
|
|
|
110 see themselves as working for money, approval or competitive success
|
|
|
111 find their tasks less pleasurable, and therefore do not do them as
|
|
|
112 well.
|
|
|
113
|
|
|
114 The last explanation reflects 15 years of work by Ryan's mentor at the
|
|
|
115 University of Rochester, Edward Deci. In 1971, Deci showed that
|
|
|
116 "money may work to buy off one's intrinsic motivation for an activity"
|
|
|
117 on a long-term basis. Ten years later, Deci and his colleagues
|
|
|
118 demonstrated that trying to best others has the same effect. Students
|
|
|
119 who competed to solve a puzzle quickly were less likely than those who
|
|
|
120 were not competing to keep working at it once the experiment was over.
|
|
|
121
|
|
|
122 Control plays role
|
|
|
123
|
|
|
124 There is general agreement, however, that not all rewards have the
|
|
|
125 same effect. Offering a flat fee for participating in an experiment -
|
|
|
126 similar to an hourly wage in the workplace - usually does not reduce
|
|
|
127 intrinsic motivation. It is only when the rewards are based on
|
|
|
128 performing a given task or doing a good job at it - analogous to
|
|
|
129 piece-rate payment and bonuses, respectively - that the problem
|
|
|
130 develops.
|
|
|
131
|
|
|
132 The key, then, lies in how a reward is experienced. If we come to
|
|
|
133 view ourselves as working to get something, we will no longer find
|
|
|
134 that activity worth doing in its own right.
|
|
|
135
|
|
|
136 There is an old joke that nicely illustrates the principle. An
|
|
|
137 elderly man, harassed by the taunts of neighborhood children, finally
|
|
|
138 devises a scheme. He offered to pay each child a dollar if they would
|
|
|
139 all return Tuesday and yell their insults again. They did so eagerly
|
|
|
140 and received the money, but he told them he could only pay 25 cents on
|
|
|
141 Wednesday. When they returned, insulted him again and collected their
|
|
|
142 quarters, he informed them that Thursday's rate would be just a penny.
|
|
|
143 "Forget it," they said - and never taunted him again.
|
|
|
144
|
|
|
145 Means to and end
|
|
|
146
|
|
|
147 In a 1982 study, Stanford psychologist Mark L. Lepper showed that any
|
|
|
148 task, no matter how enjoyable it once seemed, would be devalued if it
|
|
|
149 were presented as a means rather than an end. He told a group of
|
|
|
150 preschoolers they could not engage in one activity they liked until
|
|
|
151 they first took part in another. Although they had enjoyed both
|
|
|
152 activities equally, the children came to dislike the task that was a
|
|
|
153 prerequisite for the other.
|
|
|
154
|
|
|
155 It should not be surprising that when verbal feedback is experienced
|
|
|
156 as controlling, the effect on motivation can be similar to that of
|
|
|
157 payment. In a study of corporate employees, Ryan found that those who
|
|
|
158 were told, "Good, you're doing as you /should/" were "significantly
|
|
|
159 less intrinsically motivated than those who received feedback
|
|
|
160 informationally."
|
|
|
161
|
|
|
162 There's a difference, Ryan says, between saying, "I'm giving you this
|
|
|
163 reward because I recognize the value of your work" and "You're getting
|
|
|
164 this reward because you've lived up to my standards."
|
|
|
165
|
|
|
166 A different but related set of problems exists in the case of
|
|
|
167 creativity. Artists must make a living, of course, but Amabile
|
|
|
168 emphasizes that "the negative impact on creativity of working for
|
|
|
169 rewards can be minimized" by playing down the significance of these
|
|
|
170 rewards and trying not to use them in a controlling way. Creative
|
|
|
171 work, the research suggests, cannot be forced, but only allowed to
|
|
|
172 happen.
|
|
|
173
|
|
|
174 /Alfie Kohn, a Cambridge, MA writer, is the author of "No Contest: The
|
|
|
175 Case Against Competition," recently published by Houghton Mifflin Co.,
|
|
|
176 Boston, MA. ISBN 0-395-39387-6. /
|
