Common practice often lags behind social science. Motivation is the perfect example. We think that we can motivate people by offering rewards like money or coupons or benefits.
This does work, but only for dull, repetitive tasks.
For the important tasks, you can actually decrease motivation by offering money. I'm reading Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink.
He cites an experiment with school-grade children who liked to draw. The experimenters measured how much time children spent drawing.
Then they offered the children certificates and other prizes for drawing. The children started drawing less.
Versions of this experiment have been replicated over and over again. Not only does offering if-then rewards fail to motivate people, if also stifles creativity.
Adults who were paid to solve a puzzle took longer than those who weren't.
The theory is that by offering money for something that people already enjoy we cause them to think of the task as "work". They lose pleasure in the task. When the children were bribed to draw, they felt like they were losing their freedom to enjoy something they already loved.
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