Paying people to do something they already enjoy can reduce how much they do it.
The effect has been demonstrated with children drawing, adults solving puzzles and volunteers donating blood.
The standard explanation is that a reward the activity as work.
Once the payment stops, the original does not return to its former level.
The finding is real but narrower than the popular version suggests.
It applies to tasks that are already interesting and to rewards that are expected and .
Unexpected after the fact does not produce the same effect.
For dull, repetitive work, payment simply helps, which is why the finding has limited use in most workplaces.
The practical lesson concerns how a reward is described rather than whether it exists.
A payment framed as of supports ; the same payment framed as control undermines it.
, and connection are the three conditions the research keeps returning to.
Schools and workplaces routinely remove the first while investing heavily in the second.
A teacher told exactly what to say every hour has without autonomy.
That combination predicts exit better than pay does in several studies.
Money matters most when it is absent and least as an instrument of persuasion.