Motivation crowding theory suggests that providing extrinsic incentives for certain behavior, such as promising monetary rewards for accomplishing a task, can sometimes undermine intrinsic motivation for performing that behavior, in contrast to the predictions of neoclassical economics, and can produce an overall decrease in performance. The term crowding out was coined by Bruno Frey in 1997, though the idea was introduced into economics earlier by Richard Titmuss, who argued in 1970 that offering financial incentives for certain behaviors could counter-intuitively lower their performance; the typical study removes a payment incentive and finds it lowers interest in and willingness to complete a task compared to those never paid at all. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Core ClaimOffering an extrinsic reward such as payment for a task can undermine a person's intrinsic motivation to do that task, so removing the reward afterward can leave performance lower than if no reward had ever been offered. 1 Connections
Associated With
Motivation crowding theory's account of extrinsic incentives displacing intrinsic motivation draws directly on self-determination theory's intrinsic/extrinsic motivation distinction, and the two are routinely discussed together in the motivation literature.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Motivation Crowding Theory
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction
providing extrinsic incentives for certain kinds of behavior...can sometimes undermine intrinsic motivation for performing that behavior
Introduction, crowding out mechanism
can sometimes undermine intrinsic motivation for performing that behavior
Introduction, Frey 1997 coinage
The term "crowding out" was coined by Bruno Frey in 1997
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