The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life Read Online Free PDF

collect.
    Our experimental objective was to determine whether a monetary incentive would increase the amount collected and, if so, how much money it would take to maximize the students’ performance. So we divided 180 students into three different groups (none of the participants knew that they were taking part in an experiment). The first group listened to the leader talk about the importance of the donations to the charity, explaining that the charity wanted to motivate them to collect as much money as possible. For the second group, the leader added that each student would receive a token 1 percent of the amount he or she collected (we made it clear that the bonus would not come from the donations). This 1 percent added an external monetary motivation to the intrinsic do-good one. The third group was told they would be given 10 percent of the donated amount.
    The group that garnered the most donations was the one receiving no payment at all. Basically, this group wanted to do good for others. But apparently, when the monetary compensation was introduced, the students in the other two groups stopped thinking about the good they were doing, and concentrated instead on a simple cost-benefit calculation with respect to their monetary payments. The group offered the 10 percent payment came in second. Those offered 1 percent garnered the fewest donations. Why? Because in this case, the money didn’t support the intrinsic, do-goodingincentive—instead, like Rebecca’s day-care fine, it crowded out the higher motivation. That is, the money became more relevant than the desire to do good.
    When you’re deciding whether to motivate someone, you should first think about whether your incentive might crowd out the willingness to perform well without an incentive (to help the environment by recycling soda cans, to help with cancer research, and so on). Crowding out could occur because of a change in the perception of what you are doing, or because you have insulted the person you are trying to encourage or discourage. When you decide to take the incentive route, you should make sure that the incentive is large enough to reap gains. Think of an incentive as a price. If you charge a lot (for example, if Rebecca had charged late parents, say, $5 per minute, as occurs in some places in the United States), people will be more likely to behave the way you want them to. So, the moral of the story is to either pay enough, or don’t pay at all.
    Cash, in the end, really isn’t king; some things can’t be bought. Rewarding people on the basis of what they really value—their time, their self-image as good citizens, even candy—is often much more motivating than just slapping down, or taking away, a couple of bills. In short, not all incentives are created equal. 4
    I’ll Have What She’s Having
    Incentives can influence behavior in other strange ways too. Consider, for example, what happens in an episode of the sitcom Friends when all the friends go out to dinner at a nice restaurant. Monica, Ross, and Chandler, who make decent livings, order full-course dinners with all the trimmings, but Rachel, who doesn’t earn much money, only orders a side salad. Phoebe, similarly short in her bank account, orders a cup of soup, and Joey, who is no trust-fund baby either, chooses a miniature pizza. When the bill arrives at the end ofthe meal, Ross announces they will split it—and the final tally comes to $33.50 a piece. A pall falls over the table. “No way,” Phoebe resentfully retorts. So much for the nice evening out with friends.
    Splitting the bill makes a lot of sense on the surface: after all, sitting around figuring out exactly who ate what and how much sales tax they owe is an unpleasant way to end an otherwise nice experience. Indeed, in some cultures it’s considered pretty gauche to do so. In Germany, diners will figure out the price of their individual bills to the last cent, and no one feels bothered. But in Israel, and in