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1 STUDIES FIND REWARD OFTEN NO MOTIVATOR
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2
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3 Creativity and intrinsic interest diminish if task is done for gain
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4
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5 By Alfie Kohn
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6 Special to the Boston Globe
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7 [reprinted with permission of the author
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8 from the Monday 19 January 1987 Boston Globe]
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9
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10 In the laboratory, rats get Rice Krispies. In the classroom the top
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11 students get A's, and in the factory or office the best workers get
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12 raises. It's an article of faith for most of us that rewards promote
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13 better performance.
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14
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15 But a growing body of research suggests that this law is not nearly as
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16 ironclad as was once thought. Psychologists have been finding that
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17 rewards can lower performance levels, especially when the performance
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18 involves creativity.
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19
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20 A related series of studies shows that intrinsic interest in a task -
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21 the sense that something is worth doing for its own sake - typically
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22 declines when someone is rewarded for doing it.
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23
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24 If a reward - money, awards, praise, or winning a contest - comes to
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25 be seen as the reason one is engaging in an activity, that activity
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26 will be viewed as less enjoyable in its own right.
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27
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28 With the exception of some behaviorists who doubt the very existence
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29 of intrinsic motivation, these conclusions are now widely accepted
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30 among psychologists. Taken together, they suggest we may unwittingly
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31 be squelching interest and discouraging innovation among workers,
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32 students and artists.
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33
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34 The recognition that rewards can have counter-productive effects is
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35 based on a variety of studies, which have come up with such findings
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36 as these: Young children who are rewarded for drawing are less likely
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37 to draw on their own that are children who draw just for the fun of
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38 it. Teenagers offered rewards for playing word games enjoy the games
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39 less and do not do as well as those who play with no rewards.
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40 Employees who are praised for meeting a manager's expectations suffer
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41 a drop in motivation.
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42
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43 Much of the research on creativity and motivation has been performed
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44 by Theresa Amabile, associate professor of psychology at Brandeis
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45 University. In a paper published early last year on her most recent
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46 study, she reported on experiments involving elementary school and
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47 college students. Both groups were asked to make "silly" collages.
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48 The young children were also asked to invent stories.
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49
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50 The least-creative projects, as rated by several teachers, were done
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51 by those students who had contracted for rewards. "It may be that
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52 commissioned work will, in general, be less creative than work that is
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53 done out of pure interest," Amabile said.
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54
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55 In 1985, Amabile asked 72 creative writers at Brandeis and at Boston
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56 University to write poetry. Some students then were given a list of
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57 extrinsic (external) reasons for writing, such as impressing teachers,
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58 making money and getting into graduate school, and were asked to think
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59 about their own writing with respect to these reasons. Others were
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60 given a list of intrinsic reasons: the enjoyment of playing with
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61 words, satisfaction from self-expression, and so forth. A third group
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62 was not given any list. All were then asked to do more writing.
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63
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64 The results were clear. Students given the extrinsic reasons not only
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65 wrote less creatively than the others, as judged by 12 independent
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66 poets, but the quality of their work dropped significantly. Rewards,
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67 Amabile says, have this destructive effect primarily with creative
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68 tasks, including higher-level problem-solving. "The more complex the
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69 activity, the more it's hurt by extrinsic reward," she said.
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70
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71 But other research shows that artists are by no means the only ones
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72 affected.
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73
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74 In one study, girls in the fifth and sixth grades tutored younger
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75 children much less effectively if they were promised free movie
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76 tickets for teaching well. The study, by James Gabarino, now
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77 president of Chicago's Erikson Institute for Advanced Studies in Child
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78 Development, showed that tutors working for the reward took longer to
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79 communicate ideas, got frustrated more easily, and did a poorer job in
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80 the end than those who were not rewarded.
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81
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82 Such findings call into question the widespread belief that money is
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83 an effective and even necessary way to motivate people. They also
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84 challenge the behaviorist assumption that any activity is more likely
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85 to occur if it is rewarded. Amabile says her research "definitely
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86 refutes the notion that creativity can be operantly conditioned."
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87
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88 But Kenneth McGraw, associate professor of psychology at the
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89 University of Mississippi, cautions that this does not mean
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90 behaviorism itself has been invalidated. "The basic principles of
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91 reinforcement and rewards certainly work, but in a restricted context"
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92 - restricted, that is, to tasks that are not especially interesting.
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93
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94 Researchers offer several explanations for their surprising findings
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95 about rewards and performance.
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96
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97 First, rewards encourage people to focus narrowly on a task, to do it
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98 as quickly as possible and to take few risks. "If they feel that
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50969
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99 'this is something I have to get through to get the prize,' they're
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26119
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100 going to be less creative," Amabile said.
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101
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102 Second, people come to see themselves as being controlled by the
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103 reward. They feel less autonomous, and this may interfere with
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104 performance. "To the extent one's experience of being
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105 self-determined is limited," said Richard Ryan, associate psychology
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106 professor at the University of Rochester, "one's creativity will be
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107 reduced as well."
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108
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109 Finally, extrinsic rewards can erode intrinsic interest. People who
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110 see themselves as working for money, approval or competitive success
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111 find their tasks less pleasurable, and therefore do not do them as
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112 well.
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113
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114 The last explanation reflects 15 years of work by Ryan's mentor at the
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115 University of Rochester, Edward Deci. In 1971, Deci showed that
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116 "money may work to buy off one's intrinsic motivation for an activity"
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117 on a long-term basis. Ten years later, Deci and his colleagues
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118 demonstrated that trying to best others has the same effect. Students
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119 who competed to solve a puzzle quickly were less likely than those who
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120 were not competing to keep working at it once the experiment was over.
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121
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122 Control plays role
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123
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124 There is general agreement, however, that not all rewards have the
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125 same effect. Offering a flat fee for participating in an experiment -
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126 similar to an hourly wage in the workplace - usually does not reduce
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127 intrinsic motivation. It is only when the rewards are based on
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128 performing a given task or doing a good job at it - analogous to
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129 piece-rate payment and bonuses, respectively - that the problem
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130 develops.
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131
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132 The key, then, lies in how a reward is experienced. If we come to
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133 view ourselves as working to get something, we will no longer find
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134 that activity worth doing in its own right.
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135
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136 There is an old joke that nicely illustrates the principle. An
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137 elderly man, harassed by the taunts of neighborhood children, finally
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138 devises a scheme. He offered to pay each child a dollar if they would
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139 all return Tuesday and yell their insults again. They did so eagerly
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140 and received the money, but he told them he could only pay 25 cents on
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141 Wednesday. When they returned, insulted him again and collected their
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142 quarters, he informed them that Thursday's rate would be just a penny.
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143 "Forget it," they said - and never taunted him again.
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144
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145 Means to and end
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146
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147 In a 1982 study, Stanford psychologist Mark L. Lepper showed that any
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148 task, no matter how enjoyable it once seemed, would be devalued if it
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149 were presented as a means rather than an end. He told a group of
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150 preschoolers they could not engage in one activity they liked until
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151 they first took part in another. Although they had enjoyed both
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152 activities equally, the children came to dislike the task that was a
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153 prerequisite for the other.
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154
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155 It should not be surprising that when verbal feedback is experienced
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156 as controlling, the effect on motivation can be similar to that of
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157 payment. In a study of corporate employees, Ryan found that those who
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158 were told, "Good, you're doing as you /should/" were "significantly
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159 less intrinsically motivated than those who received feedback
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160 informationally."
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161
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162 There's a difference, Ryan says, between saying, "I'm giving you this
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163 reward because I recognize the value of your work" and "You're getting
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164 this reward because you've lived up to my standards."
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165
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166 A different but related set of problems exists in the case of
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167 creativity. Artists must make a living, of course, but Amabile
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168 emphasizes that "the negative impact on creativity of working for
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169 rewards can be minimized" by playing down the significance of these
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170 rewards and trying not to use them in a controlling way. Creative
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171 work, the research suggests, cannot be forced, but only allowed to
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172 happen.
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173
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174 /Alfie Kohn, a Cambridge, MA writer, is the author of "No Contest: The
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175 Case Against Competition," recently published by Houghton Mifflin Co.,
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176 Boston, MA. ISBN 0-395-39387-6. /
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