Do Monetary Incentives Undermine Performance on Intrinsically Enjoyable Tasks? A Field Test
[abstract only; full text not retrieved, 2026-10-20] Esteves-Sorenson, C., & Broce, R. (2022). 'Do Monetary Incentives Undermine Performance on Intrinsically Enjoyable Tasks? A Field Test.' The Review of Economics and Statistics, 104(1), 67-84. doi:10.1162/rest_a_00947. The best designed field test of the article's question, and a null. Their review of more than 100 prior tests found the typical sample was fifteen participants and that not one jointly reported time on task, output and productivity. Their own task was tasting and rating cookies, volunteers having turned up unpaid; the paid group earned seventy-five cents a cookie in session one and learned at the start of session two that the money had stopped. Session one: 62 per cent more cookies rated, 29 per cent faster. Session two, with pay withdrawn: no less output, no lower productivity, a small and statistically insignificant fall in time on task, and sloppier written evaluations, which the authors read as a response to unmet pay expectations. A no-surprises arm showed no harm. Her summary: the harmful effects of pay on interesting activities 'are not as easily produced as suggested by prior research'.
[abstract only; full text not retrieved, 2026-10-20] Esteves-Sorenson, C., & Broce, R. (2022). 'Do Monetary Incentives Undermine Performance on Intrinsically Enjoyable Tasks? A Field Test.' The Review of Economics and Statistics, 104(1), 67-84. doi:10.1162/rest_a_00947. The best designed field test of the article's question, and a null. Their review of more than 100 prior tests found the typical sample was fifteen participants and that not one jointly reported time on task, output and productivity. Their own task was tasting and rating cookies, volunteers having turned up unpaid; the paid group earned seventy-five cents a cookie in session one and learned at the start of session two that the money had stopped. Session one: 62 per cent more cookies rated, 29 per cent faster. Session two, with pay withdrawn: no less output, no lower productivity, a small and statistically insignificant fall in time on task, and sloppier written evaluations, which the authors read as a response to unmet pay expectations. A no-surprises arm showed no harm. Her summary: the harmful effects of pay on interesting activities 'are not as easily produced as suggested by prior research'.
Written from the abstract only; full text not retrieved, 2026-10-20.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Esteves-Sorenson, C., & Broce, R. (2022). Do Monetary Incentives Undermine Performance on Intrinsically Enjoyable Tasks? A Field Test. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 104(1), 67-84.