The Reward Trap

Rahul Vohra, the founder of Superhuman, thinks deeply about what makes people motivated. He cites a Stanford study from the 1970s that changed how he thinks about incentives.

Researchers recruited preschoolers who loved drawing. Some were promised a reward (a certificate with a gold seal and ribbon). Some weren't told about any reward.

'The children with no reward, they spent 17% of their time drawing. But the children who expected a reward, sadly they only spent 8% of their time drawing. The very presence of a reward halved their motivation.'

This is the trap of sticker charts and prize jars. Every time you say 'If you do X, you get Y,' you're potentially cutting in half their internal motivation to do X.

'That's the problem with rewards, is they just massively undermine intrinsic motivation.'

The kid who cleans up because they want to live in a clean space will keep cleaning long after the stickers run out. The kid who cleans up for stickers will stop the moment you do.