School of Management, State University of New York at Buffalo.
Booth School of Business, University of Chicago.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2017 Jan;146(1):1-19. doi: 10.1037/xge0000206.
Although incentives can be a powerful motivator of behavior when they are available, an influential body of research has suggested that rewards can persistently reduce engagement after they end. This research has resulted in widespread skepticism among practitioners and academics alike about using incentives to motivate behavior change. However, recent field studies looking at the longer term effects of temporary incentives have not found such detrimental behavior. We design an experimental framework to study dynamic behavior under temporary rewards, and find that although there is a robust decrease in engagement immediately after the incentive ends, engagement returns to a postreward baseline that is equal to or exceeds the initial baseline. As a result, the net effect of temporary incentives on behavior is strongly positive. The decrease in postreward engagement is not on account of a reduction in intrinsic motivation, but is instead driven by a desire to take a "break," consistent with maintaining a balance between goals with primarily immediate and primarily delayed benefits. Further supporting this interpretation, the initial decrease in postreward engagement is reduced by contextual factors (such as less task difficulty and higher magnitude incentives) that reduce the imbalance between effort and leisure. These findings are contrary to the predictions of major established accounts and have important implications for designing effective incentive policies to motivate behavior change. (PsycINFO Database Record
尽管激励在可用时可以成为行为的有力促进因素，但大量有影响力的研究表明，奖励在结束后会持续降低参与度。这一研究结果导致从业者和学者普遍对使用激励措施来激励行为改变产生了怀疑。然而，最近对临时激励的长期影响进行的实地研究并没有发现这种不利的行为。我们设计了一个实验框架来研究临时奖励下的动态行为，发现尽管激励结束后参与度会立即大幅下降，但参与度会恢复到奖励后的基线，与初始基线相等或超过初始基线。因此，临时激励对行为的净效应是非常积极的。奖励后参与度的下降不是由于内在动机的降低，而是由于想要“休息”的愿望所致，这与在主要具有即时和主要延迟收益的目标之间保持平衡是一致的。进一步支持这一解释的是，初始奖励后参与度的下降会因减少努力和休闲之间不平衡的情境因素（如任务难度降低和奖励幅度增加）而减少。这些发现与主要既定理论的预测相悖，对设计有效的激励政策以激励行为改变具有重要意义。
