Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives jointly predict performance: A 40-year meta-analysis
Cerasoli, Nicklin and Ford pooled 183 studies with 212,468 participants across school, work and physical settings, after more than 40 years of debate and nine earlier meta-analyses on rewards and inner drive. The abstract reports that intrinsic motivation was a medium-to-strong predictor of performance, including when incentives were present, that it mattered less when incentives were directly tied to performance and more when they were indirectly tied, and that when both were analysed together intrinsic motivation predicted more of the quality of performance while incentives predicted more of its quantity. The authors conclude that incentives and intrinsic motivation are not necessarily antagonistic with respect to performance.
Cerasoli, Nicklin and Ford pooled 183 studies with 212,468 participants across school, work and physical settings, after more than 40 years of debate and nine earlier meta-analyses on rewards and inner drive. The abstract reports that intrinsic motivation was a medium-to-strong predictor of performance, including when incentives were present, that it mattered less when incentives were directly tied to performance and more when they were indirectly tied, and that when both were analysed together intrinsic motivation predicted more of the quality of performance while incentives predicted more of its quantity. The authors conclude that incentives and intrinsic motivation are not necessarily antagonistic with respect to performance.
Written from the abstract, Europe PMC record, 2026-11-02.
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Cerasoli, C. P., Nicklin, J. M., & Ford, M. T. (2014). Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives jointly predict performance: A 40-year meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 140(4), 980-1008.