No Gold Stars

Moved from CognitiveDissonance...

An experiment I heard of: Students asked to write a paper supporting a position they personally disagreed with. The students who were paid little showed more shift in their views toward agreement with the position. The well-paid students could just say, "It's a job". For some essays on teaching and why rewards and gold stars are bad, look at http://www.alfiekohn.com. -- RobertField

Which articles (there or elsewhere on the web) talk about this?

Sorry, the experiment I described was something a psych professor talked about in class, no references available. -- RobertField

In that case the "experimental data" is invalid. Need some reference to back this up, folks.

Classic 1950's experiment conducted by Festinger:

Hire two people to attend a talk. The talk is about oral hygiene and is extremely boring and takes a long time, but we don't tell that to the subjects. Pay one subject $2 to attend the talk. Pay the other subject $20 for the same thing. (Might need more money today; I said this was a 1950's experiment.) Afterward, ask each subject whether they enjoyed the talk. Which subject will claim that he enjoyed the talk more?

Wrong! Empirically, subjects who were paid $2 said that they found the talk somewhat interesting, and the subjects who were paid $20 said it was a total bore. Reason: $2 isn't enough to justify going to a boring talk, so the subjects had to justify their time some other way or they'd feel like idiots. The subjects who were paid $20 felt smart to get paid that much to do nothing, and so had no need to distort their perceptions.

Festinger points out that this is exactly the opposite from what behaviorism would lead you to expect (since the people who were paid $20 had the behavior "reinforced" more).

Festinger should have asked them whether they wanted to go to another talk like that one. He didn't test whether the behavior was reinforced, he tested whether people rationalize their behavior.

By the way, this is exactly why if you ever go to a psychiatrist you should ask if he is a behaviourist. If he is, poke him in the eye and run. My mind isn't made of straw, thank you.

AhHa, "treat 'em mean to keep 'em keen" ?

See Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes.

ISBN 0618001816

It shows rewards may do the opposite of what is expected. But be sure to read some of the critical reader comments (the 2 star ones especially) for some informed contrary opinion.

Ok, I did read them all. Which one impressed you with any actual technical detail? Most of the responses were at a meta level and were not specific. Complaining about usage of terms or saying the author didn't understand behaviourlism don't strike me as very damning. --AnonymousDonor

Could this be related to YouGetWhatYouPayFor

CategoryPsychology